The Pardon the Interruption 20th anniversary celebration rolled on this week, and to cap off the hit ESPN show’s actual anniversary, hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon received a congratulatory message from former President Barack Obama. As Kornheiser explained, this was a surprise largely organized by ESPN’s Pablo Torre, at which point Obama popped up on screen, much to the delight of the two hosts.
The former President of the United States described his time as a state senator two decades ago when he would, during a long day of menial work, turn on ESPN for some light entertainment and often find himself watching PTI to catch up on the sports stories of the day and hear the two hosts bicker and debate until the buzzer sounded.
“Segment after segment, day after day, year after year, you guys show up,” Obama said.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, @BarackObama for this gift, and for celebrating our 20th anniversary with us! pic.twitter.com/CLjxOyHSuM
— PTI (@PTI) October 22, 2021
As president, Obama was well-known for his sports fandom and he often linked up with ESPN for interviews and his annual NCAA Tournament bracket. Of course, since the show has always been filmed in part from Washington, D.C., and Wilbon hails from the president’s hometown of Chicago, it likely holds an even greater place in Obama’s heart.
May we all hope one day to argue with our friends so passionately about sports that the President goes out of his way to tell us we did it incredibly well. If any show deserves that, it is PTI.
