On Sunday night, The Pro Football Hall of Fame sent out a tweet that we can only guess was intended to honor one of the greatest players in NFL history who left us far too soon. Instead, we got an incredibly awkward and cringeworthy tweet.
Boltman, the longtime unofficial mascot of the San Diego Chargers before they became the Los Angeles Chargers mascot, was evidently in Canton over the weekend, visiting the Hall of Fame. He stopped by the bust of Seau to, as the Hall of Fame said in its tweet, “pay his respects.”
Anyone reading this has no doubt had an idea that seemed really good in your head, but didn’t work out all that well in execution. It happens to the best of us. That was this tweet. Because while a mascot standing in front of the bust of one of the greatest players in team history may sound like a good idea, someone in a full mascot costume standing in front of the bust of a deceased player didn’t look quite right.
Despite that, someone at the Hall of Fame went right ahead with the tweet.
This weekend, Boltman visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
This included a moment to pay his respects in front of the bronze bust of the late Junior Seau pic.twitter.com/eGMnKSjUey
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) August 28, 2023
The original tweet was even more cringeworthy, as instead of “This included a moment to pay his respects in front of the bronze bust of the late Junior Seau” it said, “This included a moment for solemn reflection in front of the bronze bust of the late Junior Seau.”
Plenty of people took to Twitter to share their views on how weird this was.
A concerning amount of people had to think this was a good idea for it to happen. https://t.co/VmFH5tNwfr
— Adam Drovetta (@ADrovetta) August 28, 2023
Unintentionally one of the funniest things I've seen on this app. https://t.co/NIYC0GpHHi
— Mookie Alexander (@mookiealexander) August 28, 2023
I manage social media for a Fortune 500 company and, well, we wouldn't have done this https://t.co/5IsiqcN0cN
— Jason Woodmansee (@jasonwoodmansee) August 28, 2023
Boy what the hell https://t.co/Ph5gMsfDo8
— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) August 28, 2023
Same energy https://t.co/hIRALMgGoW pic.twitter.com/JGYGrlUT3R
— Zach Mullis (@zmullis) August 28, 2023
junior seau killed himself over head injuries from football. this is worse than the pat tillman PR. https://t.co/IlczDBkZt1
— frank bullitt (@the_blueprint) August 28, 2023
we, as a culture, have jumped the shark https://t.co/nPEPPZpWac
— Jacson A. Bevens 🦉 (@JacsonBevens) August 28, 2023
Maybe next time, a photo of Boltman in front of Dan Fouts’ Hall of Fame bust would be the best idea.
