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Spelling Bee Contestant Really Wants To Meet ESPN Personalities, Says ESPN

It’s entirely possible that 10-year-old Jae Canetti, who performed valiantly at this year’s edition of the Scripps National Spelling Bee before bowing out on “Grundriss” earlier today, truly does desire nothing more in this world than to meet Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg of ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning. His bio here says he’s a baseball player, so maybe he’s a sports radio enthusiast, and theirs might be the only show he can catch any of before he goes to school.

Tons of people listen to the show; who’s to say Canetti can’t be one of them? Nothing wrong with him enjoying some Mike & Mike to start his day. But when ESPN itself humblebrags to us all about how he enjoys some Mike & Mike to start his day after he gets eliminated (the Mike & Mike talk happens near the end of the clip):

…then it’s hard not to groan and imagine the conversation between Canetti and whoever got the Mike & Mike tidbit out of him going something like:

ESPN: So, Jae, if you could meet anyone in the world, who would you choose?
Canetti: Michio Kaku!
ESPN: Well…
Canetti: Sorry, is something wrong?
ESPN: You sure you wouldn’t want to meet people like, say, Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg of ESPN Radio more?
Canetti: Well, they’re okay, I guess…
ESPN: No, I think you think they’re better than okay. I think you really want to meet them.
Canetti: Well, I’m sure they’re nice…
ESPN: Yes, that’s more like it. No one you’d rather meet than Mike and Mike. That sounds good, right? It would sound good on TV, right?
Canetti: I… guess?
ESPN: Oh, it will sound excellent on TV. It will sound most excellent. Thank you for seeing it our way.
Canetti: You’re welcome?

Really: can you imagine the dance ESPN executives broke into the second they realized this kid at the spelling bee was giving ESPN free advertising on ESPN? It’s a network’s dream – and even assuming Canetti’s wish was totally legitimate, it was a little too dreamy for us.