What’s in a name, you say? Bit too much, apparently. Mike Tomlin switched up two letters, and Maria Taylor flagged that live on air. What a way to kick-start the 2026 season for everyone.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach was on his regular-season television debut as an analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America” ahead of the Super Bowl rematch between the Patriots and Seahawks. Tomlin mistakenly referred Seahawks’ wideout and the 2025 Offensive Player of the Year, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, as “JNS” multiple times before his colleague interrupted to correct him.
“I’m not going to let you do it again,” Taylor joked. Tomlin, caught off guard but acknowledging the error with good humor, moved on to circle back to his analysis of the Seahawks. However, Taylor also mispronounced the WR’s name, struggling with his last name.
To his credit, Tomlin took it well, laughed the whole thing off, and kept rolling with his analysis as nothing happened. But the debut was clearly not off to a great start.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba has had his name mispronounced before, when comedian Druski announced the WR as the winner of the Offensive Player of the Year.
The different technicalities concerning his role as a broadcaster are skills he’s still learning, and hiccups like these are expected. He began the show not showing which camera to look at, with his microphone not always near his mouth. Taylor has played a crucial part in all of this, looking out for Tomlin. NBC has been able to play to the former coach’s strengths by bringing out a segment titled Tomlin’s Theme of the Game where he gets to role-play as a coach addressing his team.
It’s worth remembering how Tomlin even landed in this chair. After spending almost twenty years running the show in Pittsburgh, he walked away from the Steelers this offseason. Many had expected him to take on the vacant head coaching positions in the league after that stint, but Tomlin turned to the media instead.
The franchise moved forward with Mike McCarthy, who reunited with star quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Fans online weren’t nearly as forgiving.
One person wrote, “The most disrespected OPOY of all time. Smh.”
Another didn’t hold back either.
“They really hire anyone off the street,” the fan wrote.
Someone else joked they were “tired of him already and haven’t even watched a minute of him yet,” while another fan just dropped a GIF captioned “someone getting fired.”
And then there was the reaction that really let loose, with one fan firing off.
“Tomlin, you [expletive]!!! It’s JSN, not JNS. Put some respect on it!!!!!!!!” the fan commented.
Rough moment aside, it wasn’t all bad for his broadcasting debut. Just not the clean start he probably wanted.