A blog called Barstool Sports has tweeted a video claiming to show sports fans in Toronto cheering wildly at the injury to Warriors player Kevin Durant. The blog founder Dave Portnoy claims it shows fans at “The Toronto Tavern”. Normally such cheering at an opposing player injury would be extremely rude, disrespectful, and very unsporting.
Except, it never happened.
The video is clearly doctored and taken from a video at Bristol’s Ashton Gate stadium in England during the 2016 England-Wales Euro football (soccer) fixture as England scored the winning goal to end 2-1;
Indeed there are several videos on YouTube showing the British fans cheering, including the one used in the fake, doctored, anti-Toronto video
The trouble is, the tweet has been seen well over a million times and many American fans are likely to believe it in spite of so many obvious clues, not the least of which is the fact that none of the so-called Raptors fans are wearing any Raptor gear. It’s also clearly daylight in spite of the night game and Portnoy’s bizarre excuse of “light enhancing windows”.
Image from one of the original videos showing the crowd in 2016 at Ashton Gate stadium, Bristol England. (YouTube)
A little research shows there is no such place as The Toronto Tavern, but that didn’t stop a fake twitter account being created.
In spite of people pointing out that the video is fake, Portnoy in subsequent tweets seems to be inflaming the situation saying “Toronto fans are in denial that fans cheered when Durant got hurt” and then also later claiming the original video of the British football fixture is the one that has been doctored.
Provoking?
While this fake video claims to show disrespect, there have been a couple of incidents where Toronto fans went clearly beyond the pale, such as when the parents of Warrior’s player Stephen Curry were heckled as they arrived at a Toronto hotel. Also some Raptors fans in the stadium have been called out for chearing when Durant was injured.
However, Raptors fans have also set up an website –sorrykd.com –apologising for such behaviour and enabling donations to Durant’s charity foundation.
On a more lighthearted note, American late night host Jimmy Kimmel managed to show Canadian Raptors fans in a more generous way, fooling them into cheering for the Warriors
As for the fake video, while it may be a joke, one wonders about the potential consequences. Fans emotions can run very high and very hot and portraying Toronto fans as being so disrespectful even as the two teams and their fans meet tonight in game 6, hopefully will not result in more action outside the stadium than inside.
Additional information-sources
- Blog TO: L O’Neil: Jun 12/19: U.S media spreads fake video
- National Observer: E McIntosh: Jun 12/19: We fact checked a fake video
- CBC: Jun 12/19: video of Raptors fans heckling player’s parents
- Huff Post US: L Moran: Raptors fans tricked in betraying team
- Youtube (one of several showing 2016 England win over Wales
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