As the National Football League regular season kicks off, social media users claim the Minnesota Vikings denounced governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz. This is false; the allegations stem from a satirical website.
“VERIFIED through the Minnesota Vikings front office… The team has denounced Tim Walz with this statement: ‘The Vikings don’t Support His Values or leadership as Minnesota Governor,'” says a September 9, 2024 Facebook post.
The post includes a side-by-side image of Minnesota Vikings football players and Walz.
Image
Screenshot of a Facebook post taken September 11, 2024
Similar posts spread elsewhere on Threads and X.
Walz, a former high school football coach, has been barnstorming swing states with running mate Kamala Harris, touting his Midwest roots. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his supporters have ramped up criticism of the Minnesota governor, triggering a wave of misinformation.
The NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles denied the team took sides in the 2024 presidential campaign (archived here) after counterfeit advertisements suggesting the team had publicly endorsed Harris appeared at bus stops across the state of Pennsylvania’s largest city.
Claims about the Vikings denouncing Walz are similarly false.
Keyword searches found the satirical Facebook page America’s Last Line of Defense shared what appears to be the first version of the post September 6, labeling the content as satire. The account’s Facebook profile also clarifies: “Nothing on this page is real.”
America’s Last Line of Defense is a network of parody websites run by Christopher Blair, who told AFP in 2020 that “confirmation bias” leads people to believe and share the articles.
“The truth is no longer important to them,” he said. “All they care about is holding on to their hate and fear.”
Although some Facebook posts are clearly labeled as satire, others are not — an example of what the News Literacy Project calls “stolen satire,” or “a satirical story that is removed from its original context and presented online without an immediately apparent disclaimer.”
AFP found no credible reports that any Vikings officials published such a statement about Walz.
In late July, the governor — who at the time was still on Harris’s short list of potential running mates — visited Vikings training camp and joked that his support for the team could hurt Democrats’ chances with Wisconsin voters who back the rival Green Bay Packers. Walz has made similar appearances over the years.
AFP contacted the Vikings for comment, but a response was not forthcoming.
AFP has previously fact-checked dozens of false claims tracing back to Blair’s sites.
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