NFL reporter Albert Breer sparked a backlash after jokingly tweeting that he had destroyed his son’s T-Ball “participation trophy.”
On Monday morning, Breer jumped to Twitter with a photo of a broken baseball trophy.
“Found out my kid got a participation trophy. This had to be done,” Breer wrote adding the hashtag #playlikeachampion.
The tweet also included a link to the reporter’s Instagram account where he also added the hashtag #fatheroftheyear.
Almost immediately Breer was attacked by those thinking the reporter had maliciously destroyed his son’s little baseball trophy. But, in a follow up note on Instagram, Breer made it clear he was joking.
Breer wrote, “to everyone who didn’t see the glue in the picture, and thought those hashtags were serious. You guys are the real heroes!”
Indeed, a closer look at the photo shows sitting behind the trophy base a clump of the type of super-strength glue called epoxy that comes in separate tubes and needs to be mixed before use. The trophy is also not a participation trophy, unless participation trophies include the word “champions.”
Breer was apparently trying to fix the trophy after it was broken but thought he’d make a joke about the situation on social media.
However, Breer’s explanation did not prevent dozens of angry replies:
Not everyone missed the joke, though:
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.