Part of it is surely disrespect towards the Fins. I can guarantee you that if he were on the Patriots, or Cowboys, or Steelers, ect, this wouldn't be an issue.

 

The thing is, they can just say "Tua" and everyone gets it. Why even try to say a name you know that you're going to butcher?

 

Well, I can tell you for sure that even in the Pittsburgh area, Roethlisberger had his name miss spelled and misspronounced for quite a while. :chuckle:

 

I prounce it Ben Rape-Lees-Burger

 

I still have trouble with it.

 

While I think it is patently disrespectful for professional announcers to mispronounce a name, I’ll give people a pass with Tua.
I grew up playing Rugby and have followed it all my life. I’m pretty familiar with Polynesian names, Samoan, Tongan, Fijian and Maori, and I would never in my wildest dreams think that there was an “n” hiding in the pronunciation.

 

There's a Australian born but Samoan heritage rugby player called Ratu Tagive that plays for Glasgow and Scotland, and the Tag_ start of his name is pronounced the same as Tua's surname. It's laziness on the part of a commentator if they can't at least try to pronounce it correctly. And there's no excuse for paid professionals to not get it right.

There's even a website that helps them if they're too lazy to find out themselves.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/friv/pronunciation-guide.htm

 

Adam Schefter got an angry letter from an irate fan about him not pronouncing it tag-oh-vi-lo-ah :lol:

 

First of all...wow! If a mispronounced name angers you enough to send a letter like that, it might be a good time to take a vacation.

But even more importantly, who's Greeny that doesn't deserve a letter? That absolutely killed me!