If you’re broadcasting a sporting event from the Bay Area, you can expect B-roll footage of some of the area’s famous bridges as part of the telecast. So, it’s essential to recognize which bridge is which and know their names. During Friday night’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, ESPN’s Mark Jones missed the mark on both counts. Coming out of halftime, ESPN aired a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge, which Jones mistakenly identified as another bridge.
“A look at the Bay Area Bridge, AKA the Willie Brown Bridge, named after the city’s first African-American Mayor.”
Mark Jones may need to brush up on his Bay Area bridges. pic.twitter.com/xYY1DqZgS2
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 15, 2025
Later in the broadcast, another shot displayed what is officially known as the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, but Jones referred to it as the “Bay Area Bridge.”
A later shot showed the Bay Bridge, or as Jones said, the Bay Area Bridge.
A portion of that bridge is named after Willie Brown. https://t.co/5BQwXlnplP pic.twitter.com/xtiSXInwdL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 15, 2025
Let’s clarify some things. The first bridge that Jones mistakenly called “The Bay Area Bridge” is the Golden Gate Bridge, the most famous bridge in the Bay Area and one of the most recognizable in the world. If you’re a tourist wanting to see a famous bridge, it’s almost certainly this one, connecting San Francisco to Marin County. The less famous but more heavily traveled bridge is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly known as the Bay Bridge. As the name suggests, it connects San Francisco to Oakland, and there is no bridge officially referred to as the “Bay Area Bridge.”
To be fair to Jones, he’s not the first to make this blunder. Before Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals at Oakland Arena, the Toronto Raptors posted a picture on X (then Twitter) depicting the team on the Golden Gate Bridge, captioned “Crossed the bridge. Ready for battle.” More recently, Los Angeles Angels pitcher Ben Joyce mistakenly shared a photo of the Bay Bridge, calling it the Golden Gate Bridge, which led to some on-air ribbing from the announcers and Joyce poking fun at himself for the gaffe.
Additionally, we should acknowledge Jones for noting that the western part of the Bay Bridge is officially called the Willie L. Brown, Jr., Bridge, named after San Francisco’s former mayor. To avoid making similar mistakes in the future, he might want to refresh his knowledge on the subject.
