I can't believe the NYRR hired a guy who could barely speak English to be one of their lead commentators for NYC Marathon

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ESPN is a joke wrote:

If they simply wanted to hire a great Hispanic announcer for the color commentary job, they'd have hired Des Linden.

If they wanted a legendary runner for whom English wasn't their native language, they'd have hired Bernard Lagat or Meb Keflezighi.

If they wanted to have the worse broadcast possible, then you'd do what they did - hire Juan Luis Barrios.

Can someone explain the logic behind this? Like what adult on planet earth who is on charge of US broadcast would think this is a good idea?

Why would you hire a no-name person who struggles with English as one of your key color commentators? Why would he be hired over Des, Meb or Lagat? I'd add in Rupp but we know why he'd be hired over Rupp.

ESPN is a joke wrote:

If they simply wanted to hire a great Hispanic announcer for the color commentary job, they'd have hired Des Linden.

If they wanted a legendary runner for whom English wasn't their native language, they'd have hired Bernard Lagat or Meb Keflezighi.

If they wanted to have the worse broadcast possible, then you'd do what they did - hire Juan Luis Barrios.

Can someone explain the logic behind this? Like what adult on planet earth who is on charge of US broadcast would think this is a good idea?

Why would you hire a no-name person who struggles with English as one of your key color commentators? Why would he be hired over Des, Meb or Lagat? I'd add in Rupp but we know why he'd be hired over Rupp.

ivyrunner wrote:

It's just not that his English was bad but he just seemed underprepared. Early in the race he was talking about Talbi and said "the Morocco guy". Then late in the race when Tola was starting to pull away form Yimer, he was talking about Yimer and called him "the other guy". There were multiple times where John Anderson asked him a question and he answered a different question. I feel bad for the guy but ESPN should be embarassed.

ESPN is a joke wrote:

If they simply wanted to hire a great Hispanic announcer for the color commentary job, they'd have hired Des Linden.

If they wanted a legendary runner for whom English wasn't their native language, they'd have hired Bernard Lagat or Meb Keflezighi.

If they wanted to have the worse broadcast possible, then you'd do what they did - hire Juan Luis Barrios.

Can someone explain the logic behind this? Like what adult on planet earth who is on charge of US broadcast would think this is a good idea?

Why would you hire a no-name person who struggles with English as one of your key color commentators? Why would he be hired over Des, Meb or Lagat? I'd add in Rupp but we know why he'd be hired over Rupp.

didn\'t watch wrote:

Was it Rojo?