Monday’s episode of ESPN FC’s Extra Time was briefly disrupted by a sound that very much resembled a fart. Dedicated readers of Defector will recall that this sort of thing happened about three years ago on the same show, although in this instance, the noise was a lot more audible.
The crucial moment occurs at the 11:28 mark of the video below. You can’t miss it. In the middle of answering a question about Nottingham Forest, soccer analyst Craig Burley hears a squeaky fart-like noise and has to laugh.
This disruption caused studio host Dan Thomas to start asking questions. “Who was that? What was that noise?” he said as the broadcast cut to Stewart Robson and Mario Melchiot from their respective remote locations. As everyone was struck with laughter, the blame game started:
ROBSON: [laughing] I—Mario!
THOMAS: Mario, man! What’s going on?
MELCHIOT: I didn’t do anything, man! I didn’t—[laughter] … No, never. Never in my life! No!
[brief pause]
BURLEY: So Enzo Maresca basically said to a lot of these players, who thought they were going to be part of the plans, “You’re not part of the plans.”
Maybe the FC should stand for Fart Central. The origin of the noise is impossible to determine with the available evidence, but we can tentatively rule out one suspect: Steve Nicol.
H/t once again to Matt
