Reminder: Anti-Harrison Butker Trey Wingo Once Started #BearHoax

Former ESPN host Trey Wingo is back in the news after calling kicker Harrison Butker's new contract with the Chiefs proof that "the better you are at the job, the more a team is willing to put up with."

Wingo is more concerned about Butker telling Catholic women that they'd one day find joy in motherhood than NFL teams signing violent criminals to new contracts worth tens of millions. 

More on Wingo's selective outrage here.

Nonetheless, the resurfacing of Wingo, who has hardly been heard of since ESPN did not renew his contract in 2020, reminded us of a very strange story: #BearHoax.

Let us take you through it, step-by-step:

On a cold Friday night, Wingo randomly posted a tweet telling and showing his followers that a bear had walked up to his porch in Connecticut. 

Here is the tweet, as X posts were called at the time:

Several users noticed something conspicuous about the bear visiting the Wingo residence: it was the same bear caught outside a woman's home two years prior, in 2017.

Same background, pose, tags, deck, etc.

Take a look, via the New York Post:

It turns out, Wingo downloaded a photo from Google and passed it off as his own.

Now, #BearHoax is harmless. Wingo's lie is not nearly as egregious as the bevy of race hoaxes that appear in the world of sports. 

That said, the story is really, really odd.

How weird (shout out Kamala) of a guy must Wingo be to spend a Friday night pretending as if that bear jumped on his desk and peaked inside his home? Pretty weird, no doubt.

What would even cause a grown man in his 50s to do so?

Barstool's "Pardon My Take" asked Wingo that question a few years later. The former ESPN host didn't have much of an answer. He tried to downplay the moment by saying he thought it was the "same bear" and failed to capture a photo.

"I didn't think anything about it because I figured it was a daytime photo. People would think I was saying THAT was the bear. I was just using that as an analogy. I went to bed and the next morning I woke up and it was kind of hilarious," said Wingo.

Just take the L, man.

And stop feigning faux outrage over Harrison Butker. It won't make you cool. ESPN already got rid of you.