A Fake Image of Michael Bennett Burning the U.S. Flag Is Circulating on Social Media

By Aric Jenkins
Amid heightened tensions between the NFL and President Donald Trump, an image of one of the league’s players burning the American flag is circulating around the internet. It’s fake.
The “photograph,” which has made its way across Facebook and Twitter, shows Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett enthusiastically burning the flag in a locker room as his teammates and head coach Pete Carroll happily look on. The picture is photoshopped.
The majority of the scene in the image is real, as evidence by this tweet from the Seattle Seahawks’ official Twitter account in January 2016:
What do you do in the victory locker room? You victory dance.#SEAvsAZ pic.twitter.com/qJoVyG6ZM8
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) January 4, 2016
But, as you can see, there is no flag, and there is certainly no fire. But that didn’t stop people from sharing the doctored image.
But even some anti-NFL users could see that the image is fake. For one, Bennett’s hand holding the flag looks off. And two, no sprinklers are going off as a fire burns in a public building.
I'm pretty sure the sprinklers would be going off if this was real. I'm done with the NFL even if it is photoshopped. Enough is enough
— Shannon (@shannoneffects1) September 29, 2017
TIME has reached out to the Seattle Seahawks and will update if the organization comments.
The story originally appeared on time.com.