This moment was too good to be true.
A seemingly hilarious viral moment happened during a men’s college basketball game between Loyola-Chicago and Duquesne on Wednesday night. Early in the second half, an apparent delivery man wandered onto the court during game play and looked around for the person who was supposed to drop off his food to.
The video was widely distributed around the internet after it happened. It showed up on ESPN’s Instagram page, on Bleacher Report’s Twitter, and was spotlighted by numerous other large publications. Only one problem: it appears that this wasn’t an authentic moment, and was instead part of a prank.
Watch the original video of the delivery man walking onto the court here:
The commentary from the broadcast team makes this moment even better. They were completely flabbergast at what they just watched.
While so many outlets were quick to share the video, it didn’t take long for sharp observers to realize this was a set up. Our outstanding Mid-Major Madness blog connected the dots immediately.
A video production assistant for Loyola-Chicago gave more details about what happened on Thursday morning after the game.
If you look closely, the “delivery driver” was wearing a microphone and was being filmed by a bunch of young people at the game before he even walked onto the court. He wasn’t kicked out of the game, and calmly took his seat with the food he was carrying.
1. I did not order the McDonalds, even though it was being “delivered” steps from my camera position.
— Austin Hansen (@AustinHansenTV) January 26, 2023
2. This kid was clearly doing a prank for Youtube/TikTok. You can see that he is wearing a microphone, and tons of students were filming him with their phones. pic.twitter.com/xd5xEMuloX
— Austin Hansen (@AustinHansenTV) January 26, 2023
3. They didn’t kick him out. He just casually walked back into the stands with his McDonalds in hand.
— Austin Hansen (@AustinHansenTV) January 26, 2023
4. I will personally tackle anyone else who does this. Just let the athletes play the game without worry that they are going to get hurt by a stray delivery person.
— Austin Hansen (@AustinHansenTV) January 26, 2023
Good gag, kid, but we do not need any of more of this in sports. The players on Duquesne and Loyola deserve better than some guy trying to go viral with a prank. Both of these teams prepare so hard for a game like this only to have some fan make a mockery of it.
