New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees faked being struck by lightning as part of a promotional stunt for betting company PointsBet.
Drew Brees : Struck by lightning | Lightning video
Drew Christopher Brees is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons.
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born: | January 15, 1979 Dallas, Texas |
| Height: | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Weight: | 209 lb (95 kg) |
A member of the New Orleans Saints for most of his career, Brees is second in NFL career passing yards, career touchdown passes, career pass attempts, career pass completions, and career passing completion percentage.
He also holds the record of consecutive games with a touchdown pass, breaking the feat held by Johnny Unitas for 52 years. Brees is widely regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
Drew Brees Struck by lightning
Former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was not struck by lightning during a commercial shoot for PointsBet USA.
A video was posted on social media that appeared to show the future Hall of Famer being struck by a bolt of lightning while filming the ad in Venezuela.
Fans have been sent into a frenzy over a video that purported to show legendary NFL quarterback Drew Brees getting struck by lightning while filming a commercial – which turned out to be a marketing stunt.
The former New Orleans Saints quarterback tweeted on Monday that he was “excited to be flying to a top-secret location” later in the week where he would be filming a promo for PointsBet, a sports betting app that markets itself in the US as being the “ultimate sportsbook for all things NFL”.
Also Mr Brees had apparently been filming the commercial for the sports betting company in Venezuela near the Catatumbo River, a region that sees large lightning bolts displayed an average of 297 days a year, according to an analysis published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
Mr Brees can be seen in the foreground of the video wearing a sweater with the number nine on it, while the iconic ripple of lightning over the Venezuelan river can be seen in the background.
Lightning video
The unverified Twitter video that purported to show the lightning strike has been viewed nearly 400,000 times since it was shared early Friday.
A moment later, a large flash is seen on camera accompanied by a loud crack of thunder as the camera drops to the ground and a woman is heard shouting.
But Hours after the video went viral, several reliable sports journalists reported that Mr Brees is unharmed and was not struck by lightning – sparking speculation that the clip was an elaborate PR stunt.
Also PointsBet did not immediately confirm whether the legendary football star had been struck in the filming of the commercial, writing in a Friday morning tweet that the company was “aware of the media coverage regarding PointsBet brand ambassador Drew Brees.”
“We are in communication with Brees’ team and will continue to monitor events throughout the coming hours. At this stage we will not be making any further comment,” said the company, which has been known to run promotions for “lightning bets”.
The sports betting company later released a second video of Mr Brees where he revealed it was all part of a ploy to plug the company’s “lightning bets”.