“Bruh grandma has been roasting his name for the past 20 min.”
In 2004, Marty Lampron had what could only be described as an ESPN Sportscenter “Top Ten” play for the ages.
At the time, Marty and his wife, Jenn Lampron, had just welcomed a newborn baby boy and had already settled on the name Gideon Xavier — or at least that’s what Jenn thought.
But when her son’s Social Security card arrived in the mail some time later, that’s not the name she saw.
Instead, she saw one of the most sporty names Marty could think of — Gideon ESPN Lampron.
“She was sleeping, and I went ahead and wrote down ESPN,’” Marty explained in an interview with Today.com, published Oct. 28.
“The nurse looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Then said the doctor walked in and said, ‘Your wife is going to kill you.’ And I told him, ‘She’ll get over it!’” he added.
Jenn told Today.com that she was initially “pretty mad” at the sneaky decision, but her husband was right — she eventually got over it.
And while she gave her son the option of changing it someday, he never did.
In fact, 21 years later, Gideon ESPN is making a career out of it.
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After three seasons at the University of Dayton, Gideon is now a starting linebacker and team captain for the Bowling Green State University football team.
He leads the team with 77 tackles (42 solo) — 50 more than any other linebacker on the team — and has the second-most sacks with 1.5 on the year through eight games, according to ESPN.
On Oct. 13, Gideon was named Mid-American Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Week after tallying 13 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss in Bowling Green’s 28-23 comeback win over Toledo.
And he did all of that with one of the most fitting middle names in all of college football.
Gideon ESPN Lampron clarifies the pronunciation of his name
As with any unique name, Gideon’s middle name is often mispronounced.
While most people know what ESPN is — the worldwide leader in sports news — many outlets have pronounced his name ES-pin. In reality, Gideon says it’s pronounced like the TV network.
Meaning his name is quite literally GID-ee-ihn E-S-P-N.
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His mom told Today.com that she initially tried to get her son involved in extracurricular activities that didn’t involve sports — such as guitar and Irish dance.
“But none of that stuck,” Jenn said. “He just wasn’t feeling it!”
It wasn’t until he began playing high school sports that he started embracing the name and eventually added it to his social media bio.
Now, he has to deal with the double takes he gets from bouncers when they see his ID.
“When I go to bars and they check my ID, the bouncer will be like, ‘You know this has to be a real ID,’ and I'm like, ‘It is a real ID,’” Gideon told Today.com.
Nonetheless, he still has no plans of changing it — and maybe we’ll see him in an NFL uniform someday.
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"I love my middle name. It really worked out. What if I had ended up a band kid!?" he joked.
