Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The Vernon Hargreaves III Conspiracy

Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III had a video released of him on Instagram smoking an unknown substance that has Bucs fans in a tizzy.

On Tuesday evening, an Instagram video surfaced, purportedly of Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III that, in the words of the original post, was “deff not a good look.”  The video showed a person that looks a lot like Hargraeves smoking what many assume to be marijuana, with the caption reading “i put a lil ice on the flex,” further suggesting that it wasn’t just weed he was smoking, but something  more.  As of Wednesday morning, the video had been picked up by most of the local media outlets on its way to breaking into the national media.

While it has yet to be confirmed if the person in the video was indeed Hargreaves, what the substance was that was being smoked, and if said substance was laced with any other drug. What I can confirm is that this video was posted to the fake VHIII Instagram account of “_vhiii_,” created only a day before, with no followers; this video was its only post; the account has since been removed by Instagram; a second fake VHIII account of “vhiii___” was created, also only posting this video, and that account has also since been removed by Instagram.

What’s obvious is that the fake Instagram accounts were created to publish this video in an attempt to harm Hargreaves, and I would suggest to even get him cut from the team.  But why would they want to do that?  That has been the question burning in me since this story was broken.

STARTING AT THE SOURCE

A twitter account – @JameisInDaCut – belonging to “Joel,” contributor to the Buccaneers fan blog All Things Buccaneers, is the one who first posted a screen shot of the fake Instagram account and a video of the video that fake account contained, it’s sole post.  A cursory look at the account shows that Joel is an FSU fan, who has never liked Hargreaves being on the team and directly tweeting to Buccaneers General Manager, Jason Licht, to remove all former Gator and Hurricane players from the Buccaneers.

https://twitter.com/JameisInDaCut/status/978867392523718658

It certainly isn’t a crime to be a fan of a certain college team and to strongly dislike any rivals.  But still, it doesn’t exactly reek of legit, unbiased media reporting.  And it does throw into question the veracity and integrity of a post with such a shady and questionable source as a fake Instagram account.  Exactly how did Kell come across this post?  How is that he was the only one who obtained this video?  And who splashed that caption across the video suggesting the weed was laced with something more?

Embed from Getty Images

Between the article written on his blog and his twitter account, he either “stumbled” across the

fake

secret account or he was contacted by the owner of the account.  One source told me that the people who contacted Joel were from NFL Sports Updates, but that doesn’t ring true since they quoted Joel when reporting the story.

One thing that is true, Joel’s personal account and the official twitter account for the blog which is owned by Joel, seems intent on making sure that people are properly crediting him and the site for “breaking” the story.  With just  four hours of his post going viral, they have emphasized this fact no less than seven times.

Which can be understood.  If you were a start up blog, hoping to one day become a major media outlet, you would also want to be credited with breaking a big story that has gone national.  And this would be a good way to do it.  But still, something seemed fishy.

Was it possible that, regardless of the content of the video and how he obtained it, that these fake Instagram accounts were created by Joel himself in attempt to rid the team of a Gator while at the same time attempting to boost his upstart fan blog on to the national media scene?  And why would a site that purports to be ran by “fans” of the Buccaneers post something that would ultimately hurt the Buccaneers?

MOVING ON TO THE SOURCES

Two sources, both who wished to remain anonymous, seemed to think so.  One source, with intimate knowledge of what happens in the the All Things Bucs team chat, detailed the long held hatred for Hargraeves and anyone who was an FSU in state rival and shares my suspicions that the accounts were created by Joel and this was an attempt to rid the team of a player simply because of which school he played for in college.  Although Joel, himself, has denied creating the account.

https://twitter.com/JameisInDaCut/status/978979491732103168

Whatever the truth is, whether Joel created these fake accounts or not, and whether or not this is based in some juvenile collegiate rivalry or if this is just an attempt to get some attention and boost his clicks, it’s “deff not a good look” for him or the All Things Bucs blog.

Next: Buccaneers Draft Profile - G Quenton Nelson