NFL reporter Albert Breer created a firestorm on social media Monday after he joked about smashing his child’s baseball participation trophy.
Breer posted a photo on his Instagram showing the smashed trophy.
He added in the caption, “Found out my kid got a participation trophy. Had to be done.” Breer included the hashtags “play like a champion” and “father of the year” at the end of his post.
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The senior NFL reporter and lead content strategist for The Monday Morning Quarterback quickly received backlash on Instagram and Twitter over the post.
“shout out to your kid's future essay about hating his dad.,” one person wrote in a comment on Breer’s photo.
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Another person wrote: “I don’t typically comment, but you seriously need to read a child psychology book. Being supportive of your 4 or 5 yr [sic] old kid for playing baseball is the point. Breaking his trophy in half is teaching your child to break stuff (nothing more-nothing less). When he’s old enough to play kid pitch that’s different. I don’t think that you’ll find a single pro baseball coach or major leaguer to agree with you on this. Be a better role model.”
“Yeah, my sense of masculinity is fragile as well,” a third person wrote.
Responses on Twitter were no different.
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Breer later wrote in a comment on the photo he was joking about intentionally breaking the trophy.
“s/o to everyone who didn’t see the glue in the picture and thought those hashtags were serious. You are the real heroes!”