Cris Collinsworth's pronunciation of Marcus Mariota's name earned a hilarious Harry Potter comparison

Billy Heyen

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Cris Collinsworth's pronunciation of Marcus Mariota's name earned a hilarious Harry Potter comparison image

Cris Collinsworth, Marcus Mariota and... Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger?

That's a crossover you don't expect to find. But the NBC color commentator's pronunciation of the Washington Commanders QB's last name brought out some Harry Potter chatter on social media on Sunday night.

There's probably a standard way you're used to hearing Mariota's name said. Collinsworth mixed it up. He put a distinct emphasis on the last two letters, really drawing out a "TAH" sound.

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Fans of the wizarding movie Harry Potter recalled a scene from the first book/movie, when two of Harry's best friends are learning a spell.

The brilliant Hermione is sitting next to the more clumsy Ron, who is trying to make something levitate.

The spell they need is "Wingardium Leviosa." And the key to making it work, Hermione shows Ron, is to emphasize the last two letters.

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If you're lost, that's OK. You just need to go catch up on your Harry Potter.

But if you're keeping up, it's quite funny.

It seems unusual that this late into Mariota's career he'd ask announcers to pronounce his name differently, although it could've happened. This is the way he pronounced it in his SNF intro:

Collinsworth may also have just been trying to make something levitate.

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Staff Writer