Fox NFL announcer butchers Pato O'Ward's name during playoff game

As we discussed throughout all of the 2024-2025 offseason and then the 2025 IndyCar season, Fox deserves a ton of credit for their promotion of the American open-wheel racing series in their first year as the exclusive broadcast partner.

And after generating viewership numbers in 2025 that were higher than any single season since the 2008 post-merger season, they are clearly going all-in for the upcoming 2026 campaign as well.

In addition to the debut of Fox's new Josef Newgarden commercial during Saturday night's San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks NFC Divisional Round matchup at Lumen Field, there was a short IndyCar promo during a transition from commercial back to the game.

Lead announcer Kevin Burkhardt and analyst Tom Brady, who teamed up in 2024 and have since become one of the highest rated announcer duos in NFL broadcasting, both commented on the series during the promo, which advertised the upcoming season opener on the streets of St. Peterburg, Florida on Sunday, March 1.

Burkhardt stated that "Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, and Pato O'Ward lead the way", before asking Brady about his experience in an Indy Car with Jimmie Johnson as his driver.

Though the rumor that the two seven-time champions were partnering to field an actual Indy 500 entry turned out to be a nothingburger, Brady got a ride in the "Fastest Seat in Sports" two-seater ahead of the 109th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway back in May.

'Pato Who', the sequel

But during the discussion, Burkhardt referred to Pato O'Ward as "Pa-doh O'Ward".

It sounded more like a combination of Palou and Pato than it did anything else. For reference, Palou is pronounced "Pa-low" (not Pa-loo, not Pay-low, and not Pay-loo; we've heard them all, and then some).

Of course, mispronunciations are nothing new when it comes to American fans (or American media who clearly aren't regular fans of the series) trying to pronounce names of non-American drivers.

From "Sev-rida" (Sebastian Saavedra) to "Pagga-nod" (Simon Pagenaud), if you've followed the series for any length of time, you know exactly what we're talking about.

We can't knock them for trying.

This one was particularly ironic, however, because of the whole "Pato Who?" saga that emerged in 2024 after IndyCar CEO Mark Miles tried to use the fact that O'Ward was not on billboards in his home country to support his stance that the Mexican driver's popularity, which is by far tops among all drivers in the series, was being overblown amid calls to have IndyCar race in Mexico.

Perhaps in next Sunday night's NFC Championship Game, Burkhardt can go with "Patricio".

Further commercials featuring Alex Palou, Will Power, and Pato O'Ward are expected to debut in the coming weeks, including during that NFC title-deciding contest in Seattle.