Onion story on “NCAA Investigating God” strikes a chord

Whoever is writing the sports stories at The Onion needs to get a raise. One of its fictional stories, “NCAA Investigating God for Giving Gifts to Athletes” became one of the more discussed stories on social media. And thanks to this paragraph, it set the tone for one of the funnier stories on the site:

Reports indicated that over the past several decades, the Almighty has provided hundreds of players from high-profile Division I football and basketball programs with abundant natural speed, strength, and agility, and both the universities and the players themselves are now said to be facing heavy sanctions and punishments.

The story also had a “quote” from NCAA President Mark Emmert. The real Emmert has yet to comment on this story. And we have this on the NCAA “stripping” Cam Newton of his Heisman Trophy:

Sources close to the situation also told reporters that former Auburn quarterback and current Carolina Panthers star Cam Newton may be stripped of his 2010 Heisman Trophy due to a suspected connection between God and Newton’s uncanny combination of size and quickness.

It also led to some funny reaction on social media:

https://twitter.com/AnselmFitz/status/689936121363476480

About timehttps://t.co/A20vUp5U8O

— Peter Edmiston (@peteredmiston) January 20, 2016

This has to be written by @JayBilas https://t.co/xRj6uE0mRx

— maybe: Jay (@BA_Biggie) January 19, 2016

Rules are rules…Glad they got Cam Newton on this one.https://t.co/dMzo8UIYUm

— Ezra Rodriguez (@Ezrodriguez) January 19, 2016

It certainly struck a chord with people. Now if the NCAA actually did investigate God, we would have a really huge story.

[Indianapolis Star]