If you have a crazy moment in the world of sports nowadays, then you can be sure that someone will be quick to snag the video of the incident and make themselves a meme of it online.
Once posted on social media, these memes can often go on to be massively popular, or ‘go viral’ in modern parlance, and sometimes even the actual truth of the meme can be misrepresented, distorted or even completely ignored to try and get the clip to go viral.
So, in this article, we are going to look at some sporting clips that have gone viral and examine what the true story behind them was and whether the meme that sprung forth from it, was actually a true representation of what happened or not.
I mean, you would not be happy if you placed a bet with bet365 Sport on a game based on a meme, viral video or social media post that you saw that proved to be false, would you?
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So let’s begin our trawl through some popular memes that have proliferated on social media in recent times and discover the truth, or lack of it, about them.
A charity game in Australia started as a four-year-old got lost at the game and wandered onto the pitch.
Rather than take him back to his parents, the players moved the ball and handed to the four year old, urging him to run downfield.
His opponents played along and let the four year old run down the pitch, before an opposition player picked him up and took him over the line to score a try.
He then duly converted the kick by kicking the ball over a players head before he was returned to his parents.
Memes like the one above suggested that an enthusiastic York City fan had climbed onto the pitch and advanced unspotted into the penalty box from a throw in to crash a left foot shot to hand a win to the Minstermen.
Video seems to show an unnumbered shirt crash home the goal while his ‘teammates’ rush to congratulate him.
While the fan scoring a winner may be a fantasy for many, the truth of what happened was that York’s left back had got blood on his shirt during the game and was forced to change his shirt.
York did not have another shirt with his number on, thus the left back was forced to wear a shirt without a number.
That meant he was entirely legal on the pitch when he scored, and not a fan.
Admittedly, this wasn’t the two first teams of the two Turkish giants, but rather their youth teams clashing.
There’s not much love lost between Turkish rivals and when things get heated, incidents like bad fouls can happen and red cards usually follow.
I can only assume it was the Fenebahce defenders’ father that refereed the game as he only awarded a yellow card for this horrific challenge.
Perhaps one of the most famous viral videos was when it appeared as if a naked female streaker scored a driven shot against Barcelona in La Liga.
The truth was this was doctored footage from an advertising campaign in Spain, with the actual footage taken from a Barcelona v Malaga game with the goal scored by a Malaga player, not an enthusiastic fan in their birthday suit.
Poor old Jean Van de Velde stood on the 18th tee at Carnoustie in the 1999 British Open with a two shot lead, that was certain to become a three shot lead after Justin Leonard only bogeyed the last hole meaning that Leonard and Lawrie were leading in the club house at +6, with Van de Velde on the tee at +3.
Van de Velde’s tee shot went left, but a fortunate bounce saw him land in the rough, rather than out of bands.
His second shot clattered into the railings around the stand and landed in deep rough behind the burn that ran in front of the green.
He tried to chip out the rough, but fluffed his shot and landed in the burn. At one point he decided to try and get in the burn to play a shot from the water, while the commentator Peter Alliss refused to believe what he was seeing.
Van de Velde decided to take the drop and his next shot saw the ball land in the bunker. He could hole out from the bunker, as his playing partner, Craig Parry, did before him however his bunker shot landed a good 8 feet away from the hole.
To his credit, he sunk the putt to reach a playoff, but Paul Lawrie would go on to claim the Open after a four-hole playoff.
In the rematch between Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, did a man with a motorised Parachute land in the ring stopping the bout?
Yes, it is true. James Miller, who became known as the Fan Man, was a paraglider who was somewhat famous for appearing at sports events, however his attempt to land in the ring ended with him being hung up on the lights, and in the crowd where he was beaten by a hoard of angry fans.
It wasn’t the end of Miller’s antics. He was fined for buzzing an NFL game, and also did the same at an Arsenal v Bolton FA Cup tie in the UK and also landed on the roof of Buckingham Palace.
Sadly, Miller was later diagnosed with coronary artery disease and committed suicide in Alaska in 2002.
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