UPDATE: A football source tells Breitbart Sports that there is no way that the then-13-year-old Mac Jones is the person in the ‘NOBAMA’ costume. Nor is there any evidence that he ever appeared in a costume meant to resemble the former president.
Top NFL prospect and former Alabama quarterback Mac Jones has come under fire just ahead of the 2021 draft over an anti-Obama costume he reportedly wore when he was a 13-year-old boy.
The 22-year-old Alabama grad who helped the Crimson Tide win two championships – one as a reserve quarterback and one as a starter — is widely considered a top-five pick for the NFL. Jones threw for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns. He led Alabama to a perfect 13-0 record for the school’s 16th National Championship.
Jones was born in 1998 in Jacksonville, Florida, where he received Pop Warner Scholar recognition before playing for his Florida high school. With all that, Jones is seen as a top NFL pick.
But critics are blasting him after photos surfaced allegedly showing him dressed as “Nobama,” including an Obama mask and dreadlocks, reportedly worn when he was a teen.
Many Twitter users went on the attack:
Jones is not the first college player who has gotten in trouble over his previous social media posts or things he did as a teenager.
In 2019, top NFL pick Nick Bosa was forced to promise to keep his political ideas to himself after taking criticism from liberal sports media over his traditional conservative political opinions.
The Ohio State defensive end once had several social media posts praising President Trump, slamming the NFL’s national anthem protests, and criticizing former NFL player Colin Kaepernick for his anti-American protests and opinions. Bosa began systematically deleting his political posts on social media in preparation for jumping into the NFL draft, but it was too late for them to have gone unnoticed.
Young players in other sports have also had to apologize for old social media posts. For instance, ahead of the 2018 All-Star Game, MLB pitcher Josh Hader apologized for “racist” tweets he posted when he was only 17.
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