The internet had another “wait, WHAT?” moment this week. And this time the stars of the show were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, and a fake X account that somehow fooled people for months.
Not just fans, the actual NFL team. Yes, really.
The chaos started when a viral post appeared from what looked like Egbuka’s X account asking a spicy little question: “Is CTE even real?” Within minutes, the internet exploded like someone dropped fireworks into a microwave.
For context, CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is the brain condition linked to repeated football head injuries. So questioning it publicly is basically social-media gasoline on a bonfire.
Fans were angry, comment sections were on fire, sports Twitter turned into a courtroom.
Then the National Football League drama took an even funnier turn.
It turned out that the account isn’t actually Emeka.” Problem solved, right?
The below account is neither owned nor operated by Emeka Egbuka. It is in no way affiliated with Emeka or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. https://t.co/d3uZHhH5Nc
— Buccaneers Communications (@BuccaneersComms) March 11, 2026
Not quite.
Internet detectives did what internet detectives do best: scroll through old tweets like FBI agents with Wi-Fi, and that’s when things got awkward.
People noticed that the official Buccaneers account had been tagging that exact “fake” account in posts.
Not once, not five times, almost 60 times.
Compounding the strangeness was the fact that the account had been operating normally, as if it were the NFL player’s actual X account. It also has more than 7,500 followers and, as Pro Football Talk noted, it was followed by the gold-checked account of the NFL Players Association. It’s also followed by the NFL Films account and several NFL media members.
The account has since been suspended by X.
Adding to all of that intrigue is the revelation by Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel that the official Buccaneers X account had tagged this fake Egbuka account nearly 60 times in posts since they drafted him out of Ohio State last April. The team was still tagging that account as recently as January 3, and according to an FOS source, they simply got “duped.”
Longtime Buccaneers beat writer Greg Auman said he was suspicious of the account, though the banality of the content made it “Odd, but harmless.” That is, until Wednesday’s viral CTE tweet, which could have had severe consequences on Egbuka’s reputation (and may still, since it’s likely some who saw it still think it was him).
So some random troll managed to get tagged by an NFL team nearly 60 times just like that?
And honestly? That’s the most unexpected undefeated season in football history.
