NFL Industry Plant Chargers Fan Theory

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About

NFL Industry Plant Chargers Fan Theory is a conspiracy theory levied by fans of the NFL who believed that an expressive Asian woman (dubbed the "Chargers Girl" and later identified as Merrianne Do) filmed multiple times during an L.A. Chargers vs. Dallas Cowboys game was a fake Chargers fan, likening her to the term "industry plant," which inferred that the NFL staged her fanship in an attempt to astroturf a meme and help grow the purportedly small L.A. Chargers fanbase. Discourse about the Chargers fan being a paid actress surfaced across social media platforms like Twitter / X and TikTok. Much of the speculation was popularized by Barstool Sports.

Origin

On October 16th, 2023, the L.A. Chargers played the Dallas Cowboys in a regular season NFL game. On the day, a female Chargers fan was filmed at the game multiple times and clips of her varying reactions were posted to X^[1] by the official account of the NFL, among other major sports outlets like Barstool Sports on X^[2] and the X^[3] account of @NFL_Memes. The NFL's post received roughly 3.1 million views and 11,300 likes in less than a day (shown below).

During the game, users on X started to make memes with the woman, such as X^[4] user @BoltUpYo who captioned three screencaps of her with, "Being a Chargers Fan: a short story," gaining roughly 1,100 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). Within the same hour, users like @BarstoolBigCat on X^[5] started to portray skepticism, writing, "Who is this random woman they keep showing? Does she own the team?" gaining roughly 9,000 likes in the same timeframe (shown below, right).

The theory that the woman was a paid actress or "industry plant" was widely popularized by TikToker^[6] Jack Mac (@jackmacbarstool) who posted a video on October 16th, 2023, which broke down the theory. Essentially, Jack Mac stated that the Chargers' fanbase was struggling due to the franchise's recent move from San Diego to L.A. where it was competing in the market with the L.A. Rams. Jack Mac then linked the perception to the multiple and expressive appearances of the woman during the game's broadcast. The video received roughly 284,900 plays and 27,400 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Also on October 16th, 2023, Jack Mac's video was posted to the official @barstoolsports TikTok^[7] page, gaining roughly 4.7 million plays and 455,400 likes in the same timeframe.

Spread

As memes using videos and images of the Chargers fan continued to go viral on X,^[8] many also purported the "industry plant" theory. For instance, on October 16th, 2023, X^[9] user @ScooterMagruder captioned a video of her with, "Industry plant," gaining roughly 1,400 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). October 17th, X^[10] user @realtommymorris posted a long-form tweet about the theory, gaining over 1,000 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

TikTokers also continued to spread the theory, such as TikToker^[11] @h00pifyreacts on October 17th, 2023, whose video gained over 74,500 plays and 5,000 likes in five hours.

Minnesota Vikings Jersey

On October 17th, 2023, X^[12] user @NFL_Memes posted an older photograph of a woman in a Minnesota Vikings jersey who appeared to be the same woman as the Chargers fan. The tweet received roughly 57,900 likes in a day (shown below). The photo was spread by other viral X^[13]^[14] accounts on the day, resulting in increased speculation that the woman was a paid actress who'd been similarly hired by the Vikings in the past.

Merrianne Do's Response / Alleged Debunk

On October 17th, 2023, TMZ^[15] published an article in which they reached out to the viral Chargers fan, revealing her name, Merrianne Do. She denied that she was a paid actress and said that she and her husband were season "cabana suite" ticket holders for Chargers' games. She also addressed the photo of her in a Vikings jersey, stating that she "grew up in Minnesota before moving to California almost 20 years ago."

Also on October 17th, 2023, Marianne Do appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN to debunk the conspiracy theory and give context to her fandom. The video was uploaded to YouTube^[16] where it received roughly 104,000 views in a day (shown below).

After Merrianne Do's response, Barstool Sports' Jack Mac, who originally alleged the conspiracy theory, posted a video to TikTok^[17] about the update on October 17th, 2023, gaining roughly 538,400 plays and 27,400 likes in a day (shown below).