No, this is not a joke.
For years, especially on Twitter has become a place where regular folks can make fun of sports figures by acting as an alter ego by creating a parody account that differs from the person they are imitating.
Most sports figures either know about it, ignore it, or simply laughs along with everybody else.
Brian France is not laughing. The former NASCAR CEO has formally filed a lawsuit against John Steele, who is the operator of parody account “Drunken Brian France” (@DrunkBrianF), for causing him “emotional distress.”
Matt Weaver of Autoweek reports that France “alleges that user John Steele is impersonating, harassing and targeting the third-generation former NASCAR leader.”
France was the CEO and Chairman of NASCAR from 2003-2018, and is also the son of the late Bill France Jr., who was the head of NASCAR from 1972-2000.
France also said in the lawsuit that he has suffered “emotional distress” due to the “highly offensive” tweets. He is looking for damages “in excess of $15,000,” as well as a jury trial. The parody account describes itself as follows: “The quintessential drunk & oxyfied idiot destroying what my family spent 60+ years building in NASCAR. You can’t be this stupid sober (Parody).”
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The account responded to the lawsuit:
