It’s a claim that’s making its way around Facebook and other social media platforms: Patrick Mahomes rejected $10 million from Tesla CEO and Department of Government Efficiency chair Elon Musk.
The response from the Kansas City Chiefs star: “Keep it and spend it on something that actually helps people!”
It sounds too good to be true. That’s because it is.
The claim seemed real to some because it appeared under an account calling itself “Mahomes Family” on social media.
“Tech mogul and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk made headlines when he offered a remarkable $10 million donation. The offer came in response to the ongoing discussions surrounding the future of football and the growing influence of Patrick Mahomes’ legacy, particularly his impact on both the NFL and youth development through his football program,” the caption read.
It linked to an article on Autulu.com, which appears, at first glance, to be a sports website.
“Musk, known for his larger-than-life persona and his passion for supporting innovative causes, expressed his admiration for Mahomes’ leadership both on and off the field. ‘Patrick Mahomes has redefined the game of football,’ Musk tweeted. ‘I stand with you, Patrick,'” read the article, dated March 26.
“However, in a surprising turn that has left the sports and business communities buzzing, Patrick Mahomes rejected Musk’s generous offer, delivering a message that resonated far beyond football. ‘Keep it and spend it on something that actually helps people,’ Mahomes said, turning down the donation with humility and a focus on social justice issues that few could have predicted.
“Musk’s offer came at a time when Mahomes’ name was synonymous with not just football greatness, but also with his advocacy for economic empowerment and equality in sports,” it continued.
“Patrick Mahomes, widely regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, has continued to influence the game and its growth. His Mahomes Foundation, alongside his leadership of the Kansas City Chiefs, has made a significant impact on the NFL, but also on youth development and social change.”
The first thing that should tip you off is that this sounds like something that results from a ChatGPT prompt that reads, “Please write me a story about Elon Musk and Patrick Mahomes that sounds as if it were written by a third-grader in his second week of an English-as-a-second-language program.” (The first paragraph of my results, for the curious: “One day, Elon Musk wake up in big house. He say, ‘Today I make rocket go to moon!’ He eat pancake with syrup and smile. Elon like space very much. He go to garage and say hello to robot. ‘Good morning, robot,’ he say. Robot say, ‘Beep beep, good morning, Elon!’” I like my results better.)
The second thing you’ll notice is that this site seems to have an awful lot of improbable stories about Patrick Mahomes. For instance: “Patrick Mahomes Discovers His Former Nanny Still Working at 85: A Heartwarming Journey of Gratitude.” Or: “Patrick Mahomes Bravely Rushes Into Fire to Save Pregnant Woman Trapped in LA Fire — And It Ends Amazingly.” Or: “Chiefs fans dream of Super Bowl return as Patrick Mahomes loses ‘dad bod’ and reunites with Travis Kelce.”
I didn’t know Taylor Swift was down with pansexual polyamory, but maybe she’s the type. However, the real tipoff should be this story, dated March 24, in the “Related Posts” section at the bottom of the page: “Coach Andy Reid Shocks the World by Rejecting Elon Musk’s $10 Million Offer: ‘Keep It and Spend It on Something That Actually Helps People!’”
And then there was this one, dated March 23, in the related posts at the bottom of that page: “Dawn Staley Shocks the World by Rejecting Elon Musk’s $10 Million Offer. She says ‘Keep It and Spend It on Something That Actually Helps People!’”
Man. Elon promises to donate $30 million and gets rejected three times by three different athletic figures using the same line? What’re the odds?
Not good, as you might imagine; as Lead Stories noted, not only did said post not appear on Musk’s X account in any of those formats, but “[a]n AI detector concluded that the text of the story, including bogus quotes, was highly likely to have been generated using AI.”
“Lead Stories used the Hive AI Detector browser extension to analyze the sample of the text of the story, and the tool said it was ‘99.8 percent likely to be AI-Generated,'” the outlet noted.
Of course, the fact that the outlet had also fact-checked the exact same story on Dawn Staley from a few days earlier didn’t hurt matters, either. One almost wishes they’d linked to it and said, “You can’t be serious, right?” But alas.
Sadly, people on Facebook were apparently none the wiser, as the post was liked over 19,000 times and shared almost 2,000 times as of Tuesday morning, despite the fact that Facebook had put a big tag on it saying, “False information.”
The comments section was mostly positive, as well:
“Good quarterback, man an soul. Patrick cannot be bought,” one said.
“Patrick doesn’t need or want his money. He’s not being bought by Musk unlike trump who took 250 Million,” another wrote.
“If Elon Musk was so concerned about helping our country get out of debt he would just donate the money and go home. He needs to help take care of all of his kids who probably need a dad more than money,” another said. “Thank you Mahomes for turning down his offer of money to you. Stick with your loving family. You don’t need friends who think they need to buy friendship and use you.”
The claim is clearly false, however, in case you needed to be reassured of that fact one more time; while the current vogue of hatred toward Musk and anything he’s involved in has apparently made the story viral, that doesn’t make it any more believable or more true.
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