It’s so easy, isn’t it? Las Vegas Raiders fans once again fell for it, so to speak, this time due to a “report” that teammates Maxx Crosby and Jimmy Garoppolo were in a scuffle. Once again, a fraudulent rumor aggregator was called out. When will people learn?
In an age where misinformation outweighs legitimate news coverage, discerning what’s true can be hard. That being said, there are social media accounts dedicated to the spread of unfounded rumors, conjecture, and hearsay. Formulating an educated opinion and point-blank stating something as fact are two different things. Take the most recent example from Wednesday. Thanks to a well-known clout chaser, Dov Kleiman (who was the subject of a NY Post expose), the famous animated avatar stated that Garoppolo and Crosby “got into it.” As you can imagine, Raider Nation ran wild with it.
By now, it’s likely that it’s made its rounds to Twitter (where it originated), Facebook, and Instagram. We’d be shocked if you hadn’t seen it yet.
Don’t worry, Raiders fans, nothing happened between Garoppolo and Crosby.
Well, thanks to one of several Raiders beat writers on the ground who are actually witnessing training camp in Henderson, the false report was quickly debunked. This time, credit goes to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
All due respect, this just did not happen. Maxx ran a lap for jumping offsides – which Jimmy induced with a hard count. Jimmy gave Maxx some playful S—- for getting him to jump, but there was no scuffle. ?????? https://t.co/01J9ItcMmY
— Vincent Bonsignore (@VinnyBonsignore) August 3, 2023
Kleiman originally cited another beat writer, Tashan Reed of The Athletic, who mentioned that things were “chippy” between Maxx Crosby and Jimmy Garoppolo at practice on August 1st. Crosby reportedly ran a lap after that, done and done. What happened there? Kleiman took liberties to spread a lie; no one got into it, and it was deescalated. Crosby literally just ran for being offsides, as Bonsignore reported.
Speaks more so to the folks on Twitter, aggregators that copy and paste from actual reporters see their accounts blow up—meanwhile, accounts featuring people that put in time & do actual work are s*** on by those same people (fans), go figure. https://t.co/vSN9ude2St
— RaiderRamble.com™ (@TheRaiderRamble) July 29, 2023
When will Raider Nation learn not to trust any of the several “aggregator” social media accounts that simply exist to blow up their follower count and establish a false sense of credibility? The real victims are those in the media industry who take the time to get things right and report the facts. It’s far too easy to generate false rumors and spread false information these days due to fans’ sensibilities. We can only hope that Raiders fans will smarten up one day.
*Top Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
