Super Bowl player caught in lie about never watching the Super Bowl
When asked in a press conference Wednesday whether he had any Super Bowl memories, Eagles defensive tackle Fletcher Cox raised some eyebrows when he said, “I don’t watch football.”
The reporter, incredulous, pushed the point, insistently asking, “You don’t watch the Super Bowl?”
Cox then continued, “I don’t watch sports. You know that, I don’t watch sports, I tell you that all the time.”
The reporter, completely and utterly flummoxed, said what most people were probably thinking.
“Not even the Super Bowl, then? We don’t really believe you,” the reporter said.
The interview, which aired as part of a segment on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” prompted a lengthy discussion from the panel of hosts, who debated the difference between players who play for love and passion for the game and those guys who just show up to get a lucrative paycheck.
Fletcher Cox told reporters he's "never watched a Super Bowl" but do we believe him? @GMFB questions Fletcher's quotes in #ThatsWhatHeSaid pic.twitter.com/xvgrMH8Ko9
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) January 25, 2018
It’s quite possible Cox might be the latter. He might have been one of those kids who only played football because his dad or his uncle or someone wanted him to, the way plenty of kids do things they don’t like just to fit in because they don’t want to be teased for not doing it. And it turns out Cox was just good enough that he ended up getting recruited to college and drafted into the pros.
He wouldn’t be the first guy who didn’t like sports to make a comfortable living playing sports. ESPN ran a feature last year about legendary NBA draft bust Darko Milicic, back home in Serbia, living a simple life as a farmer. He said his path to professional basketball began when people in his village said simply, “You’re tall, why not give it a try?”
And if Cox feels about football how Milicic felt about basketball, then why would he ever watch it on TV when he could just play, get his money, and never think about it otherwise?
Well, it appears Cox’s statement may have been too good to believe.
🤔🤔🤔 @fcoxx_91 #Eagles pic.twitter.com/sbxbtZKTyv
— Freezing Cold Takes (@OldTakesExposed) January 25, 2018
Someone unearthed a 2012 tweet from Cox in which he questions New England’s defensive line, the position Cox himself plays, during the Patriots’ loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI.
“Can’t understand why NE d-line so far off the ball,” Cox stated.
Cox also reacted with a tweet in 2015 immediately after Malcolm Butler made the game-winning interception at the goal line against Seattle in Super Bowl XLIX.
“Wow, wow, wow,” Cox said of the play.
So not only is Cox’s story about never watching sports seem completely implausible in light of the evidence, it also seems he’s a bit of a Patriots fan, following their games specifically.
There’s nothing wrong with Cox saying he’s not really a football fan, or even dodging the question, saying some stale platitude like, “I hope my favorite memory is after the game when we win” or something to that effect.
But why the dishonesty in an age when anyone with a Twitter account and too much free time can prove the lie?
The actual Super Bowl isn’t until Feb. 4, so we’ve got 10 more days of this media-saturated anticipation, but Cox has already locked down the award for Biggest Whopper told to the press.
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