The Huffington Post has reached into the NFL’s ranks for its latest writer hire: former pro football wide receiver Donte Stallworth.
The online news site has tapped Stallworth, 33, as a politics fellow, the company announced Thursday. Stallworth, who came under fire in 2009 for a string of unusual comments he posted to Twitter about 9/11 conspiracy theories, will specialize in covering national security issues for the site.
“Donte has a quick mind, an insatiable curiosity and a passion for politics — the necessary qualities of a great journalist,” Huffington Post Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim said in a statement confirming the hire.
The announcement, timed with the NFL’s season kickoff Thursday night, immediately triggered an intense wave of backlash on social media, where detractors took issue not only with Stallworth’s controversial 9/11 views but also with his perceived lack of qualifications for the job.
“I know some young journos who applied. They could have used that chance over a sideshow of hiring a former NFL player,” Storyful Editor Mandy Jenkins tweeted.
“The Donte Stallworth hiring by HuffPo is one of the stupidest media stunts I’ve seen in a while. Embarrassing,” Politico.com writer Ben White tweeted. “Flips through resumes … ‘Let’s see, here’s one. He killed a guy and doesn’t think a plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11.’ … ‘Hire that man!'”
White’s tweet was in reference to Stallworth having pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter for fatally hitting a man with his car in 2009 after the former football player had stayed out drinking all night.
But Stallworth, who played for six NFL teams over a 10-year career, perhaps became best known in journalism circles later than year when he spouted off series of bizarre tweets asserting that 9/11 may have been an inside job.
“NO WAY 9/11 was carried out by ‘dying’ Bin Laden, 19 men who couldn’t fly a damn kite. STILL have NO EVIDENCE Osama was connected, like Iraq,” he tweeted on July 20, 2009.
“Ggrrrrrrrrrrrrr @ ppl who actually believe a plane hit the pentagon on 9/11 … hole woulda been ASTRONOMICALLY bigger, God bless lost lives,” he added.
For his part, Stallworth appeared to backtrack on those comments Thursday.
“Just to be clear I no longer feel the way I did in that tweet 5 years ago,” he wrote. “After a lot of reading and researching on it, my views changed … and that’s ok.”
