Fact Check

Green Bay Packers Receivers Caught Using Battery Powered Gloves

Were Green Bay Packers receivers caught using 'performance enhancing gloves'?

Published Nov. 18, 2014

Claim:

Claim:   Green Bay Packers wide receivers Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson were caught using battery-powered, 'performance enhancing' gloves.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via Twitter, November 2014]


look it up man but the packers are being investigated because Cobb and Nelson were using these like battery powered gloves

 

Origins:   On 16 November 2014, Empire News posted an article titled "Green Bay Packers Receivers Caught Using Battery Powered Gloves; Cobb, Nelson Face Lifetime Ban." That article maintained the two wide receivers had been caught red-handed using performance enhancing magnetic gloves during a game against the Chicago Bears, which discovery was made after the NFL launched an undercover investigation of high-tech cheating by Packers stars Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson:



The performance enhancing gloves, called BPG's — short for 'battery powered gloves' — work by acting as a magnet when a leather football is thrown in a spiraling motion, creating a force of circular-bound energy, attracting the leather football toward the BPG's and sticking to them, therefore giving the receiver an unfair advantage.

An inquiry was made by an anonymous source last month after a lopsided match against the Chicago Bears in late September. The source explained to NFL officials that they noticed that when a football was thrown to the receivers that they had difficulty pulling the football away from the gloves after the play, saying that they basically had to pry the ball away by putting a foot on the player's chest and yanking it out of their hands. The NFL sent in a group of undercover agents who infiltrated the Packers locker room and gathered what they consider to be significant evidence.


The article pulled the wool over the eyes of several football fans on social media with its entirely fabricated claim. A disclaimer on the site from which the article originated explained:



Empire News is a satirical and entertainment website. We only use invented names in all our stories, except in cases when public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.

The tale of the Green Bay Packers' use of magnetic gloves is one of a number outrageous fake news stories published by Empire News. Prior hoaxes include a claim that a "record-shattering snowfall" will blanket most of the United States, a story about Colorado's legalizing crystal meth, and yarn about Congress giving all welfare recipients free cars with monthly gas stipends.

Last updated:   18 November 2014

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.