For those of you who still believe that sports and politics don’t mix, just open a history book, and you’ll find numerous pages that speak to the contrary. Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, the 1968 Olympic Games … that’s just the tip of the iceberg—and all happened well before President Trump’s Twitter finger attempted to devalue the National Football League and your favorite team’s players.
And now one nasty byproduct of modern politics that has caught the sports world unawares? Fake news. That’s according to The Ringer, who calls it a “problem,” citing a few completely false storylines involving everyone from Michael Bennett to Jerry Jones. A fake photo featuring Bennett burning an American flag has been shared thousands of times, per BuzzFeed; while fake quotes, attributed to Kansas City Chiefs’ chairman Clark Hunt concerning his stance on sideline protests, have been confirmed to be fake as well.
The worst part about it, explains The Ringer, is that some of the fake news is, at least, grounded in kernels of truth, which can put many intelligent people off the scent of its fakeness. Other stories, however, are pure fabrications.
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