There’s plenty to criticize Pittsburgh Steelers’ OC Matt Canada over. His play calling, the team’s lack of execution, maybe you don’t like the hat that he wears. But in one of the silliest stories of the Steelers’ season, the Internet seems convinced Canada is using a “burner” Twitter account to defend himself from his army of online haters.
Speaking with reporters Thursday, Canada was asked if there was truth to the story.
“No,” Canada said, as captured by freelance reporter Amanda Godsey.
Short, sweet, and to the point. Frankly, it was surprising to see Canada even asked about a story that seems so obviously untrue. But here we are.
For those who aren’t terminally online, and good on you for that, here’s what happened. Earlier this week, a Twitter account @DannyFootball77 popped up replying to virtually anyone and everyone who criticized Canada, myself included. The account follows no one and only replied to Canada-related comments with no “original” tweets of its own.
It led another Twitter user to investigate the claim by getting clues over what email the account is associated with. It came back with the starting letters “ma” with an email of “@s” with the rest of the letters asterisked out for security reasons. The Internet filled in the dots to believe the email was “matthew.canada@steelers.com.
Boom, the Internet went wild. Case closed, right? Wrong.
As Dave Bryan quickly pointed out, Steelers’ employees use @steelers.nfl.com. Meaning, the emails don’t match up.
Of course, pesky facts getting in the way of a good Internet narrative was largely swept under the rug and many were still convinced Canada is the user behind the tweets.
Without any other evidence to support it, there’s no reason to believe Canada is using a burner account, even before his Thursday denial. What’s a more likely explanation? Either it’s an Internet troll who knows how to rile up a fan base (if so, mission accomplished) or a family member trying to defend Canada. No one has taken more heat than him and though Canada doesn’t spend his time scrolling through social media, he likely has several family members who do.
In past years, secret burner accounts have been discovered. In 2019, Mitt Romney was revealed to go under the name “Pierre Delecto” and admitted it was his burner account. In the sports world, former Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Bryan Colangelo was credibly believed to have a burner that went after fans critical of the team, leading Colangelo to resign. The difference in those stories is the weight of the evidence. There were multiple of points for Romney and Colangelo that made the likelihood overwhelmingly true. Real Internet sleuthing that broke some pretty crazy stories.
For Canada? The case is paper-thin. We are generally against writing this sort of tabloid stuff but when the person in question is on the record, it becomes newsworthy enough. And it’s important to explain why it’s not true or at least, lacks almost all evidence to support the theory.
There is plenty to criticize Canada for. This story? Definitely not one of them.
