ESPN's anchors have probably experienced their fair share of moments that force them to keep straight faces while live and on the air. This afternoon, a Hall of Fame contender for such moments emerged, when an Atlanta Falcons safety reenacted a scene from the classic stoner comedy Super Troopers during a live interview today on SportsCenter.
Atlanta Falcons safety Thomas DeCoud was on the show to discuss the end of the NFL replacement referees, and what the rest of the season will be like without them. SportsCenter's producers probably expected a boiler-plate interview without anything too compelling. Instead, he gave them one of the show's best clips of the year, beginning at the 0:41 mark, in which you can hear him say the word "meow" in place of the word "now."
He then goes on to say it thirteen more times, including a closing, abrupt "meow" at the end of the interview. For those keeping count, the offending "meows":
1. 0:41
2. 0:42
3. 0:48
4. 1:12
5. 1:33
6. 2:03
7. 2:26
8. 2:49
9. 2:50
10. 2:51
11. 2:52
12. 3:05
13. 3:46
14. 4:19
The bit inspiring DeCoud is straight out of 2001's classic stoner comedy Super Troopers. In the scene DeCoud culled his inspiration from, one cop bets another that he can't say "meow" ten times during a routine traffic stop.
DeCoud, for his part, has yet to comment on it via Twitter as of meow.
UPDATE: If you don't know, meow you know.
