Sports
Vikings Respond after FOX Sports Photoshops Bradford’s Head onto Bridgewater's Body
FOX used a photo of Sam Bradford's head attached to Teddy Bridgewater's body, and fans are a bit confused.
Sam Bradford and the Minnesota Vikings have the best record in the NFL, but apparently the quarterback isn't yet deserving of his own photo. Confused? Allow us to explain.
On Sunday, FOX Sports used an image of Sam Bradford in its promotional graphic for the Vikings-Philadelphia Eagles game Sunday. The Vikings-Eagles matchup is FOX's game of the week.
The only issue? Even an average football fan could tell that Bradford’s body wasn't actually used in the image. Instead, it's Bradford’s head noticeably photoshopped onto Teddy Bridgewater’s body. The most obvious tell, besides the overall goofy-looking nature of the image, is that unlike "Teddy Two-Gloves," Bradford doesn't play with gloves.
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I guess it's really just Teddy Bridgewater in a Sam Bradford mask. CC: @cjzero pic.twitter.com/uY0SI6Tlbh
— Austin Taylor (@_AustinTaylor) October 16, 2016
And it goes deeper than that. According to Deadspin editor Timothy Burke, FOX had been using the Bridgewater/Bradford combo image for more than a month before people took notice.
Fox has been using this photoshopped Teddy Bridgewater image to represent Sam Bradford for more than a month pic.twitter.com/6hUpEqyctK
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 16, 2016
The Vikings' social media team, and seemingy the rest of the NFL, piled on.
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.@NFLonFOX Have your people contact our people. We'll get you a photo. https://t.co/Z5Vjb0DbxG
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 16, 2016
The @NFLonFOX history books sure are interesting. pic.twitter.com/rldst59fN9
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 17, 2016
my favorite part of the bradford/teddy photoshop is that they actually took the time to change the skin color of the arm
— Arif Hasan (@ArifHasanNFL) October 16, 2016
While it's puzzling why FOX didn't just use a photo of Bradford in the graphic, it's also intriguing to think about how good a Bridgewater-Bradford combo quarterback could be.
The Vikings (5-0) play on the road against the Eagles (3-2) Sunday, Oct. 23 at 12:00 p.m. on FOX.
Image via Kyle Engman, Flickr, used under Creative Commons
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