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Sketchy, unconfirmed rumors flying about Drew Brees being struck by lightning during commercial shoot [UPDATED]

joshwilson
Josh Wilson

Fansided

Drew Brees at a commercial shoot

Reports that Drew Brees was struck by lightning during a promotional shoot have yet to be officially confirmed.

A documented incident involving New Orleans Saints longtime quarterback Drew Brees looks to be potentially staged, but at this point, information is few and far between and mostly speculative, but recent reports from New Orleans media indicate Brees is OK and that the incident was staged.

Is Drew Brees OK?

UPDATE, 11:10 AM ET: A Tweet of Brees in an ambulance (presumably acting) from PointsBet confirms this was, in fact, an elaborate hoax promoting “Lightning Bets.”

UPDATE, 10:59 AM ET: Drew Brees more or less confirmed the incident was a joke:

UPDATE, 10:19 AM ET: Katherine Terrell said she texted Brees and that he is OK and didn’t get struck by lightning.

Early Friday morning, unconfirmed reports from uncertain sources came out that Drew Brees had been struck by lightning along with a grainy, low-light video of the incident.

Here is a translation of the above Tweet via Google Translate:

"@NFL star @drewbrees was struck by lightning in Catatumbo while filming a commercial south of Lake Maracaibo. It happened a few hours ago. More information shortly…"

The Tweet appears to be from a filmmaker from Venezuela. It feels like a bizarre way for someone who supposedly witnessed the incident to deliver the information, at the very least. A later Tweet said (translated):

"Sorry for the delay in giving more details but… This happened during the filming of a commercial for PointsBet. I have to wait for them to give more details or for them to give them."

What happened during Drew Brees commercial shoot for PointsBet?

The video is a general cell phone video of the star quarterback being mic’d up and prepped for the video shoot. The scene appears to be outdoors — but could be a set — with a thunderstorm off in the background. Someone says, “stations,” and lightning strikes, the camera goes out of view, and the video ends.

It feels a little too perfect for what should be a chaotic video. A meteorologist thinks so, too:

Nothing has been confirmed or unconfirmed at this point. PointsBet, who the commercial was for, Tweeted a statement:

Incredibly vague. It follows a very vague Tweet from Drew about flying to an, “top-secret location,” for the shoot.

The video looks like a typical scripted fake viral stunt, but obviously, if the reports are real, this is very bad.

Nick Underhill Tweeted that Brees is “fine” and called the video a “spoof.” That’s the closest thing to confirmation from a legit reporter we’ve seen yet. Luke Johnson confirmed that:

Here’s what Darren Rovell said:

Right now, we can only wait for clearer information from legitimate sources to know what’s going on. Fans are hoping Drew is safe either way.

If it is in fact a marketing stunt, it’s quite a bad one from PointsBet.

joshwilson

Josh Wilson

Josh is currently the Managing Editor of FanSided.com. He has worked with FanSided in some capacity for a total of eight years, starting as a contributor for Swarm and Sting, Toro Times, and HoopsHabit in 2015. He served as a site expert for The Sixer Sense during 'The Process' years while starting his educational track at Temple University as a journalism student. He later transferred to the State University of New York at Cortland where he completed his B.A. in Mass Communication with a concentration in journalism. For FanSided, Josh worked as Operations Assistant before taking on a role as Editorial Director of the NBA Division, a role he held for three years. Along the way he also helped start and lead the FanSided fellowship program which created a path for several young journalists to start their careers in sports media. Nothing is more important to Josh than Yankee wins and his family.