Peyton Manning recently took the field at the Broncos training camp and Denver fans have high hopes for the 2013 season. But then there was some bad news: The star QB broke both of his legs in a car accident!
But, you know, that didn’t actually happen.
A rumor started circulating on Twitter today that Manning was seriously injured in a car accident.
The Peyton Manning Hoax story was created by a story generator and posted onto a fake Football news website. You can read more about how death hoaxes are created here but here’s the gist: You select a public figure, an accident, and an injury and the story generator creates a fake news article.
In this case, Payton Manning was hit by a 27-year-old driver on a Denver highway. The rumor claims that the woman blew a red light and plowed into Manning in his BMW.
The FAKE news article reads: “The accident involved a 2012 BMW driven by Peyton Manning and a 76 year old female driver in a 2010 Audi. The driver of the Audi was issued a citation for failing to stop at a red light before striking the vehicle driven by Peyton Manning at a high rate of speed… The full extent of his injuries are not known at this time, however, both of his legs were visibly broken and not life threatening.”
This isn’t the first injury / death hoax to hit the news cycle this week. Jackie Chan died (but not actually) earlier this week when he fell off a building performing a movie stunt.
Did you fall for the Peyton Manning hoax? Were you worried that he had broken both of his legs? If you need some more proof of Peyton, you know, being alive, check out this video from the Broncos training camp.