ESPN Actually Used the Word 'Strigiformophobia' on Clever In-Game Graphic

Get out your dictionary.

The ESPN broadcast of the FAU-East Carolina game got creative on Thursday night. / ESPN

ESPN brought out the thesaurus Thursday night during its broadcast of a college football game between Florida Atlantic and East Carolina at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, N.C.

While examining the stats of East Carolina quarterback Katin Houser, the broadcast titled a graphic "No Strigiformophobia." Strigiformophobia, for those who don't know, is the fear of owls.

Last week, Houser threw five touchdown passes in a 56–34 win over the Temple Owls. And on Thursday night, the sophomore tossed four touchdowns through three quarters against the FAU Owls.

No fear of Owls detected, indeed.

pic.twitter.com/FvhMadl6mG

— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) November 8, 2024

"Many sufferers of Strigiformophobia are usually afraid of an owl's large eyes, or how they can rotate their head up to 270 degrees," Phobiapedia, the self-proclaimed largest phobia encyclopedia on the internet, writes. "Strigiformophobes may in turn suffer from Ommetaphobia (fear of eyes) or Ornithophobia (fear of birds)."

Noted. Thanks, ESPN.

The entire East Carolina roster doesn't need to worry about strigiformophobia, as the Pirates led 42–7 over the Owls, who are still searching for their first conference win this season.

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