An NFL reporter was left red-faced after finding out the DeAndre Hopkins quotes he published didn’t actually come from the wide receiver.
Hopkins is now a member of the Tennessee Titans roster following a free-agency period that lasted several weeks. NFL reporter Paul Kuharsky texted the wideout after the move and got some quotes from their conversation, including one detailing the player’s nickname for his coach.
“The team is just amazing all around. Great guys, great coach, great staff,” Hopkins was quoted as saying by Kuharsky.
“Great guy. Write that. Pretty boy Kelly,” Hopkins said of his new offensive coordinator Tim Kelly. “That’s his new name.”
A pretty fun quote, except that the person Kuharsky had spoken to was not actually Hopkins.
The reporter, who runs his own website following a career at ESPN, has since revealed that the WR contacted him to let him know he wasn’t the one on the other end of the line.
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“So DeAndre Hopkins reached out to me about a Thursday tweet where I shared a few quotes I believed I got from him in a text exchange,” he wrote. “It turns out they were from someone with an old phone number of his who decided to play me by acting as if he was Hopkins when I reached out.”
The reporter admitted to being very bothered by the mistake and deleted the tweet bearing the fake quotes, also asking any publications using them to take their pieces down.
The real Hopkins wasn’t all that keen on offering quotes, though.
Kuharsky also revealed having reached out to the Titans offensive coordinator to explain the error, but “Pretty Boy Kelly” might be here to stay.
