A tall, unemployed man took his niece to see Serena and Venus Williams play each other at the United States Open on Friday of last week. The man, a free-agent football player clad in a simple black T-shirt, was briefly shown on the video board at Arthur Ashe Stadium to thunderous applause from the crowd. His response was little more than a smile, enough to light up social media with messages of support.
On Monday, the same player shared on Twitter a new advertisement by Nike featuring a close-up of his face and nine words of type that, while drawing acclaim from many, also drove other people to social media to post photos of themselves destroying their Nike gear.