Troy Aikman mistakes Minnesota Vikings coach for Kevin McCarthy

If Kevin McCarthy is calling plays for the Minnesota Vikings or any NFL team, it will be impossible for announcers to keep politics out of sports.

Maybe the Republican politician didn’t really lead Minnesota to their Week 1 win over the Chicago Bears Monday night, but Troy Aikman did inadvertently call the Vikings head coach “Kevin McCarthy.” With the Vikings led by head coach Kevin O’Connell and quarterback J.J. McCarthy, Aikman said both names enough during Monday Night Football that it eventually led to a “Kevin McCarthy” slip at one point during the broadcast.

“J.J. McCarthy was asking to get a new play clock and so was Kevin McCarthy over there,” Aikman said as the camera panned to O’Connell.

Kevin McCarthy is probably a fairly common name, but the first one that comes to mind is the Republican from California and former House Speaker. Democrats don’t like McCarthy because…well, he’s a Republican. And Republicans were split on McCarthy enough for the House of Representatives to remove him as its Speaker two years ago. But maybe the Vikings will claim the lifelong politician.

Obviously, this wasn’t Aikman making any sort of political statement on Monday Night Football. He could have stumbled on the same “Kevin McCarthy” without even knowing who the politician is. This was just a sort of portmanteau. Although, if Aikman has a similar portmanteau with Mike Tomlin and Aaron Rodgers to name Mike Rogers (R-AL), conspiracy theorists might start to wonder.