George Pickens' Drafted Reaction

About

George Pickens' Drafted Reaction is a viral reaction image of the NFL player George Pickens watching himself get drafted on TV during the 2022 event. Over the following year, the image became a prominent exploitable meme online, especially among American football enthusiasts, who started to use the photos in image macros and other memes shared on Twitter (X), Reddit and Instagram.

Origin

On April 30th, 2022, a video of American football player George Pickens went viral in which he's seen reacting to himself being drafted by Chase Claypool as he stands in the living room in front of the television (notably wearing a Nike balaclava mask while slouched over). The clip was shared on YouTube^[1] by user BeauBerman that same day, amassing more than 258,000 views and 2,500 likes in a year (seen below).

George Pickens being drafted means he received a contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers team that comes with a base salary, a signing bonus and a specific allotment of guaranteed salary.

Spread

Shortly after the video went viral, a still image of Pickens in front of the television wearing blue shorts and the head covering became a prevalent exploitable meme on X, Reddit and Instagram.

For example, on May 2nd, 2022, X^[2] user @AnunobyDynasty posted the Pickens' picture paired with the caption "ain’t no way this was George Pickens’ draft fit." The post (shown below, left) garnered nearly 700 likes and 72 retweets in a year. On May 4th, Redditor^[3] u/LyleTheEgg posted a photoshopped version of the picture featuring the player watching Zach Wilson from the New York Jets team (shown below, right), which amassed more than 210 upvotes and 24 comments in a year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References