‘Game of Thrones’ Creator George R.R. Martin Posts About NFL Draft, Fans Mad It Wasn’t Draft of New Book

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin made a post on his blog on Tuesday, and the title had some fans frustrated.

Martin is the writer behind A Song of Ice and Fire, the novel series that HBO’s Game of Thrones is based on. After Season 5, the show passed the place where the books left off in the story, and fans have been waiting for the next novel, The Winds of Winter, since 2011. On Tuesday they felt teased by Martin’s new blog post, titled “The Draft Is Coming.”

Naturally, many fans clicked on the post, thinking it would be an update on the long-awaited book. Perhaps Martin was offering details on a new draft passing between him and his editors or publishers. Instead, it turned out to be his musings on the NFL draft.

In fairness, Martin is a well-known fan of the NFL, specifically the New York Jets and the New York Giants. His closest followers know that the sport is a frequent topic on his Not A Blog site, and he even gets questions about football in many author Q-and-As. Still, when the post went out on Twitter some were angry.

“You have GOT to be KIDDING me with a title like that,” one person wrote.

“Goddamn it, George, I thought you are talking about the draft of Winds of Winter,” added another.

“This has got to be the most GRRM thing you could have done! I love you and I hate you,” a third person wrote with a smiley face emoji.

Martin did not address the backlash, though many fans seemed to assume that the double-entendre was done on purpose. Martin is famously clever with self-referential phrasing like this, and may have been looking to drum up some excitement. The author ended his post by noting that any on-site comments not pertaining to the NFL draft would be deleted.

Martin has been candid about his struggles to finish The Winds of Winter, and the toll that fan outrage has taken on him. He published the latest novel in the series, A Dance with Dragons, in 2011, the same year that Game of Thrones Season 1 came out. He intended to stay ahead of the show in the books, finishing them before the grand finale aired on TV, but when he missed that mark in Season 5, he became discouraged.

Still, there is a rising suspicion that the sixth book in the series may be on its way at last. Martin has made a few leading comments in the lead up to Game of Thrones Season 8, promising that he would still finish the books after the show ended. In one skit on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Martin promised that “after the show, there will still be books,” which some fans took very literally to mean that The Winds of Winter would be announced at the end of the TV show.

Only time will tell, but for now there is the show to look forward to. Game of Thrones airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.