Happen to catch ESPN’s Monday Night Football earlier this week? You might have seen something weird when a cartoon of Denver general manager John Elway appeared. It sure seemed like that was supposed to be John Elway. It’s difficult to tell, since it looked nothing like the man in real life.
During Monday Night Football, a cartoonish Elway in black shades with huge shoulders showed up. His gray hair and rosy nose didn’t look anything like the real man. The only giveaways were the “#7” button on his lapel and a massive sign with his name beside him. It was more like a drawing than a man.
Elway looked more like a skin from the video game Fortnite instead of the legend he is, for instance. Folks were left asking questions. Viewers couldn’t take to Twitter quickly enough to mercilessly attack this strange design choice. As a result, there were some hilarious jokes.
ESPN viewers roast strange cartoon John Elway
When the cartoon aired, viewers couldn’t believe what they saw. People asked if that figure was really meant to be Elway. Of course, but that doesn’t make it any easier to digest.
The insults flew, comparing the animation to some low-rent ’80s action star to a “Spider-Man villain.”
Other viewers called for a new person to come in and work on graphics. That may not be a bad idea, after all.
There doesn’t appear to be an explanation from ESPN as far as what the network was trying with this cartoon. However, it garnered plenty of attention for the program that night. Perhaps that was the draw to start with. The idea was to get folks to tune in and have something to talk about on social media. To sum up, maybe they should take better care to illustrate Elway next time. Moreover, they should use the right person.
[H/T: SBNation]
