Falcons receiver Roddy White plans only to partially pay off a March Madness bet he made with a fan on Twitter.
After White tweeted that he thought Duke would win the NCAA Championship, he heard from a fan on Twitter named Dylan Hoyt who said that Mercer (located 90 miles south of Atlanta) would beat Duke in the first round. White told Hoyt that wasn’t happening, and White said he was so confident that he’d buy Hoyt season tickets if it really happened.
[tweet https://twitter.com/roddywhiteTV/status/445999266587480065%5D
But Mercer did beat Duke, and White began to reconsider the “bet” he had made. White instead said he would buy Hoyt tickets to one game, against the Bears, saying that Hoyt is a Bears fan.
[tweet https://twitter.com/roddywhiteTV/status/447106671446605824%5D
There are two problems with that: First, it’s not what White promised. He said he’d buy Hoyt season tickets, not tickets to the Bears game. Secondly, Hoyt is an Atlanta Falcons fan, not a Chicago Bears fan. (White didn’t seem to realize that when Hoyt was tweeting “Go Bears,” he was referring to the Mercer Bears, the team that upset Duke to get this whole thing started, and not the Chicago Bears.)
White heard it from fans on Twitter who said he should pay what he originally promised to pay, but he called that “crazy.”
[tweet https://twitter.com/roddywhiteTV/status/447684182781607936%5D
White is right that Hoyt had nothing riding on the bet, but so what? White said he would give the fan season tickets, and he should give the fan season tickets. White has made tens of millions of dollars in his NFL career, so it’s not like he can’t afford it. White should do the right thing. And next time, he should watch what he tweets.