It hasn’t been an easy rookie season for Abdul Carter with the New York Giants. And a social media post from a fake troll account has only made things worse.
After being picked third overall by the Giants in the 2025 NFL Draft and a stellar career at Penn State, Carter was one of the most heavily hyped rookies in recent years for his potential impact on the defensive line. However, he recorded his first full sack of the season in his thirteenth game of the season against the Patriots on Monday Night Football. His performances and attitude have been ripped by Giants analyst Carl Banks and WFAN hosts as he’s been benched multiple times for missing team events.
But one thing he did not do is watch pornography during a team meeting, as much as social media would have led you to believe on Monday.
Abdul Carter fell victim to a post from noted troll account “Wesley Steinberg.” Steinberg is a new generation of Twitter trolls that looks and acts like a real-life NFL reporter, although the account is filled with fake news. So when Steinberg tweeted that Carter was benched after he was caught watching something he definitely shouldn’t have been watching during a team meeting, it went massively viral.
The fake tweet has over 20 million views as of Tuesday morning.
Of course, the real reason for Carter’s benching was that he was late to a team meeting. But the post with the legitimate news from On3’s Richie O’Leary has only been viewed 500,000 times, many multiples less than the Steinberg post. That’s a problem!
Even worse, several legitimate accounts either forwarded the fake news or made light of it without any clarification that it was not a real thing. This tweet from Underdog making the news look legitimate was viewed an additional 5 million times.
The Steinberg account is run by an anonymous person who is using a picture of a lawyer from Southern California according to Front Office Sports and it’s been one of the most successful troll accounts in the football world this year.
Carter responded to the false rumors at some point on Monday, posting on X, “Stop slandering my name real sh*t! & if you believe that bs you stupid!” However, he deleted the message.
Abdul Carter hasn’t done himself any favors in building a great, professional reputation during his rookie season. But salacious fake news going viral about you is another thing altogether that nobody really deserves.
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