David Montgomery against the Texans in December 2020.
NFLTwitterBy Andrew Bucholtz on

There have been plenty of cases of athletes either announcing or lobbying for a trade on Twitter, and so a tweet from Chicago Bears’ running back David Montgomery Wednesday that seemed to many to be hinting at one of those two things took off.  Montgomery was a key piece of the Bears’ offense down the stretch and helped get them into the playoffs, so a move involving him would certainly be a big deal. And there had been some talk of the Bears making a big move, and maybe even trading for a veteran quarterback like Carson Wentz (or possibly Deshaun Watson, or possibly someone else), so some interpreted Montgomery’s tweet as related to that.

The tweet wasn’t clear, though, and some thought it was just an issue of verb tense. And NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport then poured further cold water on the trade idea with a report that that hadn’t happened. And Montgomery himself later clarified he wasn’t talking about leaving the Bears. Here’s how that all played out, starting with Montgomery’s initial tweet (since deleted, but screenshot by @TrufoleskyMick here):

A tweet from David Montgomery.

Here’s some of the discussion that sparked:

 

Here’s Rapoport defusing the report:

And here’s Montgomery’s eventual “HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BALL!” tweet:

So this was much ado about nothing in the end. But it’s certainly pretty funny how this blew up. And Montgomery might want to be a little more careful what he tweets going forward to avoid a repeat.

[Top photo of Montgomery from a Dec. 13 game against the Houston Texans by Mike DiNovo/USA Today Sports]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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