Are You Gump Verified? New Twitter Craze Takes T-Town By Storm

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Few online communities are as closely-knit as fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide on Twitter. There are longstanding inside jokes, plenty of slang and the expected fads that come and go.

But one Twitter-famous Bama fan took it a step further bringing the fanbase together.

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Adam Weil graduated from the University of Alabama last May with a degree in public relations and is also a fourth generation legacy at UA. The son of a UA cheerleader from the 1990s, Weil has built a strong brand for his particular style of clever humor, but most-recently united the fanbase with his idea for "Gump Verification" on Twitter.

Supplanting the typical blue or white "Checkmark" for official verified accounts is a Gi — the standard white suit worn by practitioners of karate. This is a callback to the 1984 blockbuster film "The Karate Kid," the moves from which have also been adopted by star Alabama receiver John Metchie III and, subsequently, the rest of the Alabama faithful.

Even the official University of Alabama Twitter account and Athletic Director Greg Byrne got in on the fun, with Bama fans including the Gi emoji in the name section of their Twitter profiles.

"The response to this has been more than I could have ever expected," Weil told Patch on Wednesday. "One of the biggest impacts I want to make on my platform and in life is unity and this is such a fun and harmless way to achieve that. No matter the background you come from, at the end of the day we all support Alabama and this is a subtle enough way to show it."

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