Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson was invited to Dartmouth College to give the prestigious university’s commencement speech. But it wasn’t the speech that’s gone viral this week.
A video shared on TikTok from the graduation shows one person heckling Wilson as he went up to the stage. “Hey! Malcolm Butler!” the person could be heard yelling before being admonished by someone else in attendance.
The “Malcolm Butler” callout was an obvious reference to Super Bowl XLVIII, when New England Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler picked off Wilson in the endzone to win the game. Wilson and the Seahawks haven’t been back since.
The clip has gone viral with SportsCenter’s retweet of it getting over a half million views and 9,000 retweets alone. But the comments are ridiculing the heckler as opposed to Wilson:
“Johnny Is an idiot but we already knew that. Face to face without a camera present, he’d never say that. Twitter fingers is so lame,” one user wrote.
“The art of a good heckle is wit. Another is timing. Another is the response of appreciation (laughter, applause, etc.) from those nearby. 0 for 3,” wrote another.
“You best believe Johnny was asking for his autograph after graduation,” a third user wrote.
Russell Wilson has probably been over the Super Bowl XLVIII result for years now. But that doesn’t mean fans will ever let him forget what happened in that iconic NFL moment.