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Mike Francesa Thought The Gurley-Ref Jersey Swap Was Real

Bob Wankel

By Bob Wankel

Published:

VIA TWITTER

It’s like they say—it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you troll the masses after the game. Todd Gurley turned in a quality effort of just that shortly after his team advanced to the Super Bowl yesterday afternoon. Of course, the win came thanks in part to an egregious missed pass interference penalty on the Rams’ Nickel Robey-Coleman, so Gurley took to Instagram to have some fun with the non-call by posting a picture of himself swapping jerseys with game referee Bill Vinovich:

As someone that had the Rams and the points, personally, I thought both the call and Gurley’s post were fantastic. Let the players play.

It turns out, however, not everybody got the joke. Here’s Mike Francesa, a guy who gets paid to talk about sports, on yesterday’s fourth quarter debacle and the lack of officiating ethics:

https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/1087444858460086272

If you were the referee of that game, and you didn’t realize you had a problem on your hands and that is your honest statement, you should be fired. You should never have another jersey whether you exchange them with players before the game, which should be an outrageous thing to begin with. No way should an official be exchanging jerseys with a player before a game. That’s such a bad thing to do.

Amazing.

Shortly thereafter it seems a producer explained to Francesa the wonders of photoshop and the concept of internet memes:

https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/1087448405381730307

To be fair, old friend and noted Doug Pederson supporter Mike Lombardi also needed some help verifying the illegitimacy of Gurley’s post:

Stunner.

Bob Wankel
Bob Wankel

Bob Wankel covers the Phillies for Crossing Broad. He is also the Vice President of Sports Betting Content at SportRadar. On Twitter: @Bob_Wankel E-mail: b.wankel@sportradar.com

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