British Wimbledon reporter goes viral for 'beyond embarrassing' NFL error during TV interview with Ben Shelton

Famous British television presenter Annabel Croft has gone viral during her role of the on-court interviewer during Wimbledon, with a 'beyond embarrassing' NFL error while speaking with American tennis sensation Ben Shelton. 

Croft wanted to dive into the athletic background of the No 10-ranked Shelton moments after he secured his first Wimbledon quarterfinals appearance on Monday. 

What was lost in translation between what those in the United Kingdom and the United States refer to as football led to the error. 

'I was reading that, in college, you loved your American football and you were a quarterbacker. What are the comparisons? I hope I've got this right. What are the comparisons between tennis and American football?' Croft said. 

'I'm not sure many people in the crowd know what that is,' Shelton said, drawing a laugh from the All England Club crowd. 'They use that brown, oval-shaped ball. Sometimes they kick it between the uprights. But yeah, I grew up playing quarterback or quarterbacker, either way.' 

Before continuing with his response, Shelton broke out into laughter, with Croft needing to drop her microphone as the household name had a massive grin on her face.  

'Probably the only thing that's a direct correlation with tennis is the serve, as you guys can probably see. And so, yeah, that's kind of the one thing that I took from football onto the tennis court. Obviously, I've always loved athletics, playing a team sport, something bigger than yourself.'

'Now, I'm obviously playing an individual sport, but I still have a team supporting me that I work with every day. So that's the most important thing to me. I don't want to be out here by myself. I want to be doing it with people that I love, and I got a lot of people that I love over there.'

The damage was done for some NFL fans, even if Shelton played it cool with the mistake. 

'A sports presenter used the term Quarterbacker, beyond embarrassing,' one person on X said. 

As Shelton said the part about people he loves in the crowd, the cameras panned to his girlfriend, American soccer star Trinity Rodman, who looked touched by her boyfriend's words.  

The NFL has had more exposure in recent years, with the NFL playing consistent regular games in London since 2007, minus the pandemic-stricken year of 2020. 

Shelton will face world No 1 Jannik Sinner in his first Wimbledon quarterfinal on Wednesday morning.  

Sinner advanced past the fourth round due to his opponent, Grigor Dimitrov, retiring with a pectoral injury after besting the world's top player in the first two sets.