As the San Antonio Spurs prepare to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in a Sunday matinee, the team’s social media account attempted to troll its upcoming opponent by poking fun at Skyline Chili.
“Real chili doesn’t have noodles,” read the caption on the Spurs’ post, which included a picture of a cowboy boot stepping on a plate of one of Skyline’s signature dishes, the 5-Way.
The only problem? While there are two Skyline locations in Northeast Ohio, the fast casual chili chain is headquartered in and primarily associated with Cincinnati. For the unitiated, Cincinnati is located more than 260 miles south of Cleveland. While Skyline Chili is certainly polarizing, trolling Cleveland over it would be akin to teasing San Antonio over Dallas’ obsession over the Cowboys. Or referring to Arlington, Texas, as the “desert.”
As one might expect, the Cavs’ own X (formerly Twitter) account used the Spurs’ misguided troll attempt as an opportunity to return fire.
“Wrong city but a good try…” the Cavs wrote, sharing their upcoming opponent’s errant post.
The Spurs ultimately deleted their post (as did the Cavs). But as they say, screenshots live forever.
nice work @cavs pic.twitter.com/IoirEFcWBf
— Courtney Hoekstra (@cshillz) January 7, 2024
At this point, social media accounts for professional sports teams having personalities and taking shots at opponents is nothing new. In fact, it’s the overwhelming approach for more teams. This, however, is the risk in taking such approach; if you’re going to troll your upcoming opponent, you better have your facts straight.
Perhaps the Spurs’ social media coordinator was under the impression that Skyline is a statewide delicacy and not just a Cincinnati thing (despite the logo that they photoshopped including the Cincinnati, ahem, skyline), or maybe they aren’t familiar with Ohio geography. Either way, it’s a safe bet that the next time the Spurs try to troll a team over a popular food chain, it will be one that’s actually associated with the city of said opponent.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.