Despite a blowout 34-19 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers was a bright spot. The young playmaker caught 13 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown. But after he scored said touchdown, Bowers mimed one of president-elect Donald Trump’s dances in the end zone to celebrate.
In the post-game locker room, Bowers was asked about the sequence.
According to USA TODAY reporter Safid Deen, Bowers said he was just copying people he had seen do it before, particularly UFC fighter Jon Jones. Bowers said that he thought the celebration was “cool” and wanted to do it himself.
Asked Brock Bowers about his Trump TD celly: “I’ve seen everyone do it. I watched the UFC fight last night and Jon Jones did it. I like watching UFC so I saw it, and thought it was cool.”
Raiders PR ended his postgame availability after my question.
— Safid Deen 💯💯💯💯 (@Safid_Deen) November 17, 2024
What’s particularly weird about this is that, per Deen, the Raiders cut off Bowers’ locker room availability after this question. Uh, why would they do that? Were they afraid about any follow-ups to Bowers’ initial explanation? That’s probably not the ideal way to cut off any potential controversy.