It's good to think that athletes are thankful and appreciative of their fans. I'd like to hope so anyways. Unless the fan is doing something questionable that makes you want to steer clear (see the many episodes of The League), I would hope that sports stars want to keep their fans happy. I suppose Jerry Rice doesn't really do that.
UFC is something I'm sure a lot of you can get into and others are left scratching your heads on.Regardless, this story is somewhat funny no matter how much of a fan you are. A report from Damon Martin of Fox Sports says that Rice had a vested interest in a fight on UFC 196 which took place on March 5th.
Just one problem: he may have rooted for the wrong guy and hurt someone's feelings in the process.
Nate Diaz grew up near the Bay Area and was a huge fan of Rice. So much that when he was in a party with Michael Irvin present, he refused to have his picture taken with the Cowboys hall of famer. Diaz said he watched the 49ers largely in part because of the G.O.A.T.
Well when UFC 196 rolled around, these two tweets came out.
Is Conor McGregor fight this weekend? He can talk and walk the walk!
— Jerry Rice (@JerryRice) March 3, 2016
McGregor vs Diaz! How many rounds with it take for the win by McGregor?
— Jerry Rice (@JerryRice) March 6, 2016
If Martin's article is anything to go by, Diaz is downright pissed that his boyhood hero would root against him like that. The article says he was 'hurt' among other things. I'm not sure if Diaz saw the humor in it and everything is good, or he likes the 49ers but hates Jerry Rice now, but it's rather funny how these things can play out. I'd take a guess there was nothing intentional on Jerry Rice's end, but there is a huge possibility he may have lost one of his biggest fans.