Pardon the interruption, but there’s a football player for Bowling Green State University and his name is ESPN. Well, Gideon ESPN Lampron.

Gideon, 21, got his middle name — written in all caps, exactly like the network — when his dad, Marty Lampron, snuck it onto his son’s birth certificate while his wife Jennifer was recovering from giving birth.

Marty, a massive sports fan, originally wanted to name his son after his favorite basketball player, Larry Bird, which was a non-starter with Jennifer. Instead, he settled for the unique middle name, pronounced ESS-pen.

“It was a big gamble,” he told the Toledo Blade in a story published Wednesday July 2, “because I could have ended up liking instruments and being in the band, or something.”

He got lucky. Gideon, a LaGrange, Ohio native, was an Ohio Mr. Football finalist in high school and later an FCS All-American at Dayton University. He transferred to Bowling Green, which plays FBS football, after last season.

“I didn’t fully realize until I got Gideon’s social security card and there it was, in all caps,” Jennifer said. “I couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be real.”

Still, Jennifer had to admit that her son’s name suits him.

“I’m so proud of him,” Jennifer said. “I told him as he was growing up, if you want to change your name, you can. I told him multiple times. He always said, ‘I love it.’”