‘Absurd,’ ‘He’s Gotten Like 4 Names Wrong Already’ — NFL World Fumes at Kirk Herbstreit for Blundering Browns RB’s Name on TNF Broadcast

Thursday Night Football featured plenty of action between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, but one mistake on the broadcast became a talking point among NFL viewers.

As the AFC North rivals battled, fans began noticing an issue with how one Cleveland player was being identified on the Prime Video broadcast. The repeated mistake became difficult for viewers to overlook and eventually fueled some complaints on X.

The Browns running back at the center of the criticism against Herbstreit was Quinshon Judkins, who was having an important night for Cleveland.

Herbstreit repeatedly referred to him as “Junkins,” which frustrated viewers who expected the veteran broadcaster to do his homework and use the correct pronunciation.

The issue stood out even more because Herbstreit is also a lead college football analyst, and Judkins was a prominent player at Ole Miss and Ohio State. Herbstreit had covered the running back during his college career, adding another reason for fans to question the repeated mistake.

One viewer first pointed out that Judkins was not the only player whose name appeared to cause problems during the broadcast. The fan wrote on X, “Kirk has gotten like 4 names wrong already in this broadcast lol.”

The criticism then grew from a single pronunciation mistake into a broader discussion about the broadcast.

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NFL analyst Harrison Graham wrote, “The amount of people, INCLUDING BROADCASTERS, that call Quinshon Judkins, JUNKINS, is absurd. There’s no N in his last name. Come on, Herbstreit, he was a Buckeye!”

As the game continued, another viewer questioned why the same error kept going unnoticed. The fan wrote, “How is Kirk Herbstreit still calling Quinshon Judkins ‘Junkins’?”

The repeated pronunciation had clearly become noticeable enough that viewers were no longer treating it as a one-time slip.

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Another fan raised the same issue while watching Herbstreit call the game. He wrote, “Why does Kirk Herbstreit keep calling him Quinshon Junkins?”

Analyst Sam Monson then added a sarcastic twist to the discussion, referencing Herbstreit’s mistake in identifying players’ college backgrounds alongside the pronunciation issue. He wrote, “Yeah, but he’s nailed where they all went to college.”

Meanwhile, Judkins, who ranks 49th in PFN’s NFL RB Impact Metric, continued contributing to Cleveland’s offense.

He scored his first touchdown of the season on a 2-yard run in the second quarter, helping the Browns take their first lead.

He finished with 17 carries for 53 yards and a touchdown, along with six catches for 43 yards on seven targets. The Browns won the game 27-24 with a late field goal, improving to a 3-1 start for the first time since 2021.

This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.