The New Orleans Saints’ season ended in the NFC Wild Card with a home overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings, but that didn’t stop Saints receiver Michael Thomas from remaining engaged in the playoffs … from his couch.
The Saints star spent much of his Saturday trolling Vikings fans as the 49ers easily handled Minnesota in the Divisional round. It didn’t matter that the Vikings were the team that ended the Saints’ season — Thomas took open joy in watching them lose. But Thomas’ Twitter experience turned especially hostile when New Orleans WWLTV sports reporter Andrew Doak subtweeted about Thomas’ antics on Twitter.
Doak first tweeted — without mentioning Thomas by name or handle — that it wasn’t a great look as a player to smack talk the team that eliminated you. To that, Thomas jumped in his mentions and called Doak “goofy.”
Doak seemed to try to avoid a back and forth, asking that Thomas be a better sport and deal with the loss in a better way. Thomas responded by saying that Twitter was his platform and that Doak wasn’t in a position to talk because he never played the game — an obviously flawed narrative.
When Doak tried to end the exchange and add that he was willing to discuss in person, Thomas threatened to “pop” Doak in the mouth.
Yikes.
While Saints fans will argue that Doak could have handled the situation better by not subtweeting a (very much online) player he covers, there’s never an excuse for Thomas to threaten violence against a reporter. It’s something that the Saints need to address.
