Wisconsin Badgers and college football legend Barry Alvarez has not passed away, contrary to a viral rumor on X Wednesday morning.
That rumor was spread by former Ohio State and NFL defensive end Matt Finkes, who wrote the following on X at 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning:
“Football lost a legend today. Barry was a pillar of the sport & a great guy. Never forget him coaching me in the East West Shrine game & coming back to the hotel & seeing him & my dad at the bar having scotch & telling stories till the wee hours. RIP Barry @Badgerfootball.”
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The former Buckeye has a following of more than 18,000 on the social media platform, making it easy for his note to circulate before anybody could dispute it.
But both the State Journal’s Colten Bartholomew and Jim Polzin did soon shoot the rumor down, citing Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh who had just spoken to Alvarez himself.
Despite a rumor this morning on Twitter, former #Badgers coach and AD Barry Alvarez is alive. Chris McIntosh told me he just got off the phone with Alvarez.
— Jim Polzin (@JimPolzinWSJ) March 6, 2024
Multiple Wisconsin administrators confirm former #Badgers AD and football coach Barry Alvarez is still with us, despite a rumor on Twitter this morning. Current UW AD Chris McIntosh spoke with Alvarez this morning.
— Colten Bartholomew (@CBartWSJ) March 6, 2024
The rumor was clearly fake. So Finkes took back to X to issue the following apology:
Apologize for the earlier tweet about @BadgerFootball Barry Alvarez. There was a post this morning from a reliable source. I did not research further. Happy Barry is still rocking!!
— Matt Finkes (@MattFinkes) March 6, 2024
This led to a lot of discussion on X, mostly piling on to what was an irresponsible, at best, decision by Finkes to post what he thought to be news.
The good news is that Alvarez is, in fact, still with us. Plus this may be a valuable less to not believe everything you read on social media.
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