Fact Check: Did George Pickens Diss Richard Sherman Again on Social Media?

George Pickens has been a bright spot for the Dallas Cowboys this season. So when he had a rare bad game in Week 14 in a 44-30 loss to the Detroit Lions, he wasn’t expecting harsh criticism. Yet, that’s what he got from Amazon analyst Richard Sherman, who not only criticized the wideout’s play but questioned his character.

Pickens responded to that criticism with a social media post that was soon deleted. In it, he questioned Sherman’s football credentials and basically said the analyst was just looking for headlines. On Monday, another former player, Alex Smith, spoke about the performance, and the former QB was much more understanding and positive.

“I went back and watched every snap of this with George Pickens. Honestly, I think we’re making a lot out of nothing. This guy got doubled all game. And when I mean doubled, I mean Cloud. A corner hard inside at the line of scrimmage, a safety over the top. … George Pickens was taking two … this guy got everybody else open,” Smith said in his analysis (via Sunday NFL Countdown).

An account that seemingly belonged to George Pickens quote-tweeted that clip of Alex Smith. The account wrote, “Shout out to @AlexSmith. Somebody knows Football. Instead of sitting up there trying to go viral.” The question is: does that account actually belong to the real George Pickens?

Claim: Pickens continued to be vocal on social media following his social media war of words with Richard Sherman, commenting on a post featuring Alex Smith commending the WR for soaking up double teams.

Source of the Claim: A quote tweet commenting on the recent Pickens saga from an account—called @George33101361—that some believe is actually associated with the Cowboys wideout.

Verdict: This account is not officially operated or owned by George Pickens based on the information we have right now. Back in May, Pickens posted on his Instagram clarifying what his Twitter handle actually was: @2pezzy_, though that account has seemingly been suspended or bought by someone else at this point.

Pickens said in the IG post that this handle was his, “NEW AND ONLY TWITTER…… if don’t come from here it ain’t. Real. So we can stop the bappin lol”. For those unaware, “bappin'” is akin to lying.

That said, while it seems this @George33101361 Twitter account does not belong to Pickens, some believe it’s run by someone close to him: his father.

Several publications have concluded that it is, in fact, Pickens’ father’s account. And there are certainly clues that would suggest that it is not just another fan account. One is that, with 21.5k followers, the account has a pretty large following.

The other and most crucial evidence that this account is run by someone important related to Pickens is who is following it: Steelers beat reporter Brooke Pryor, Mavericks beat writer Brad Townsend, and most damning of all, NFL insider extraordinaire Adam Schefter.

We’re not certain, but it would certainly make sense if this were Pickens’ father’s account. The header image is a photo of a young Pickens with what looks like family members after all.