San Francisco 49ers star Nick Bosa was brought into the middle of a fake controversy on Sunday, hours before Super Bowl LIV thanks to a fake quote attributed to him showing support for President Donald Trump. The quote was published by a Twitter account well-known for posting fake sports stories. Bosa won the 2019 Defensive Rookie of the Year award Saturday night.
“I’m a proud Trump supporter and I will do anything to visit him at the White House. If that offends anybody, too bad.”
49ers rookie sensation Nick Bosa sat down with B/R for an in-depth interview before Super Bowl LIV: https://t.co/BaytE48aUt pic.twitter.com/FSxv7QVydK
— Barry McCockiner (@MegaTroopLover) February 1, 2020
“I’m a proud Trump supporter and I will do anything to visit him at the White House. If that offends anybody, too bad,” the quote attributed to Bosa read. “49ers rookie sensation Nick Bosa sat down with [Bleacher Report] for an in-depth interview before Super Bowl LIV,” the tweet from “Barry McCockiner” continued.
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Sorry the Chiefs are trump supporters to
— Cowboy Dalmatian 🇺🇲🇵🇱 😆 (@chevyboy271) February 2, 2020
The tweet included one big giveaway that it was a hoax. The included link took users to a 2013 Bleacher Report article titled “Marcus Vick, Brother of Michael Vick, Puts a $1K Bounty on Riley Cooper.”
Despite the giveaway, more than 450 people responded to the tweet, over 8,300 liked it and more than 1,200 retweeted it. Some people took the tweet seriously. Trump supporters said they were suddenly more likely to root for the 49ers Sunday, while Trump critics said they would now root for the San Francisco 49ers.
How is meeting the president of the United States bad for the league? You would definitely meet him if you were in bosa’s position guarantee it you would be in awe.
— Willie Matthys (@MatthysWillie) February 1, 2020
The person behind the “Barry McCockiner” Twitter account is well-known for wreaking havoc on sports news cycles. NFL insider Peter King even once fell for one of his tweets. He also changed his Twitter name to “Ian Rapoport” once, pretending to be the NFL Network journalist during the flurry of genuine media reports about Antonio Brown’s release from the Oakland Raiders last year. King apologized to Rapoport for retweeting the parody account.
— IDK (@sadcowboysfan42) February 1, 2020
Another easy way to tell that the “Barry McCockiner” is a parody is the profile picture. As Fox Sports notes, the photo is an actor playing a medical practitioner in an old “Addiction Network Hotline” commercial.
“Barry McCockiner” has published several other jokes leading up to Super Bowl LIV. He tweeted a screenshot of his Bosa tweet, with one fan adding “LETS GO CHIEFS!!”
“hahahahhahahhahha people are f— idiots,” “Barry McCockiner” added.
Please, I beg you, spend the next however many minutes reading through all these dipshits who fell for this.
— Barry McCockiner (@MegaTroopLover) February 2, 2020
Super Bowl LIV kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET, live on Fox from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Photo credit: Doug Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
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