ESPN's Jon Gruden Mistakes the First Lady for Lisa Salters (w/ VIDEO)

By Sean Pendergast Thu., Jan. 5 2012 at 4:00 PM

Categories: Football, Game Time, Sports

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ALMOST got it right.

It's hard to find a reason to stick around and watch a college bowl game where the score is 63-20 in the third quarter, so if you caught the moment that I am about to lay out for you from last night's Orange Bowl, then you are likely a) a family member of a West Virginia Mountaineer football player or b) a degenerate gambler (which naturally means that I was alerted to it this morning....what?).

While most football coaches are astute tacticians, they do tend to get immersed in the day-to-day grind of being a coach, and are not always up to speed on current events. Last night during the Orange Bowl broadcast, former NFL coach turned analyst Jon Gruden was outlining the intricacies of Clemson's "hold up pictures of random nouns" play call method when he committed a major case of mistaken identity.

"Quite a production calling plays on Clemson's sideline," he said, as the losing team's coaches held up play call signs with pictures on them. "Just watch Chad Morris call the plays -- and then there's Lisa Salters ..."

There was just one problem -- the woman Gruden identified as "Lisa Salters" (who in actuality is Gruden's ESPN colleague on sideline duty) was actually Michelle Obama, the wife of the leader of the free world.

Oops!

Lucky for Gruden, Mike Tirico jumped in very quickly to correct him before Gruden could go any further with his marveling at the picture of "Salters."

To be fair to Gruden, his misidentification of First Lady Obama pales in comparison to LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson's preseason appearance on ESPN when he played "Name That Jefferson" and tabbed founding father and former President Thomas Jefferson as "George Jefferson."

Both of these videos only add more steam to my idea that there be a special week of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with football players and coaches selected by me as the contestants.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on 1560 The Game from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. weekdays, and watch the simulcast on Comcast 129 from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Also, follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SeanCablinasian.

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