Behind the scenes of @Midnight, a late-night Comedy Central show that ran from 2013-2017, a research staff monitored the internet to find trends that would make their way on the show. One day, a name began trending on Twitter – which happened to be the name of one of their colleagues.
“When a name trends on Twitter, you assume that person died,” smiled Jordan Morris, a comedy writer based in LA. “The staff would screenshot name and ask if I’m OK. As it turns out, there was a soccer player named Jordan Morris, too.”
While he was amused by the shared name, there was a little bit of concern for the non-pro athlete Morris. After all, he was the one who had the “@Jordan_Morris” Twitter handle, while the Sounders star has had “@JMOSmooth13” since his college days at Stanford.
“I’m aware that sports Twitter can be toxic,” said Morris, who has co-hosted a weekly podcast, Jordan Jesse Go! for 13 years. “Any time someone mistakes me from him online, it’s a positive thing. I have seriously never encountered online trolling because of the mix-up.”
In fact, Morris has even joined in on the fun. When the soccer-playing Morris scored two goals in his return from injury last March, Morris quote tweeted Sounders FC’s Twitter account with a life update of his recent trip to Target.
For someone who doesn’t consider himself much of a sports fan, Morris has enjoyed the following along his namesake’s career. He admits to watching YouTube videos to get know what the soccer-playing Jordan Morris like—“he seems to be a nice guy and a hometown hero.”
While many of us will never know what’s like to hear our name associated with a broadcaster’s goal call, Morris has taken full advantage of his unique circumstance.
“It’s cool to hear a sports announcer yell ‘JORDAN MORRIS’ and the crowd go wild,” Morris laughed. “ It’s a weird moment of dissonance that feels like a dream.”
One of Morris’ friends is actress Alison Becker, who shares a name with Liverpool’s star goalkeeper, Alisson Becker. She has a jersey of her name twin – and now Jordan Morris does, too.
