ESPN/NFL
During the Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers, the ESPN cameras kept cutting to a particularly enthusiastic Chargers fan immediately and obviously went viral on social media.
Given the fervor with which she was cheering on the Chargers and the frequency with which the cameras cut to her, some of the NFL’s more conspiratorial fans thought that was woman was an actor or league plant of some sort.
This Chargers fan went through all the emotions in her team's loss to the Cowboys 💔 #DALvsLAC pic.twitter.com/YMn6rBL3dd
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 17, 2023
One tweet — from a person who co-hosts Pardon My Take, a podcast that literally revolves around the premise of rabid NFL fandom — suggesting that the woman “is not real” has racked up almost 10 million views at the time of this writing.
Thanks to reliable NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero, however, those conspiracy theories have been squashed as it turns out the woman — who many people joked is “the” Chargers fan (because there apparently aren’t that many of them — get it?) — is, in fact, a legitimate season ticket holder.
“Sorry, conspiracy theorists: The Chargers fan who went viral Monday night and her husband are season ticket holders who rent cabana suites every season for multiple games, I’m told. They’re true diehard fans — not actors — and wanted to get the word out,” Pelissero tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
Unfortunately for this hyper-passionate Bolts fan, her viral moment came in tandem with a Los Angeles loss rather than a win, as the team fell to the Dallas Cowboys by a score of 20-17, dropping the team’s record to 2-3.
She and the rest of the Chargers fans also go to see head coach Brandon Staley make yet another question 4th down decision on Monday night, as he opted to go for a touchdown on 4th down rather than kick a field goal about midway through the 3rd quarter. The Chargers would go on to lose by 3 points.