Self-proclaimed Hurricanes ‘fan’ politician exposed for not being able to name a single player originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
No sports fan likes getting exposed for having fraudulent ball or puck knowledge. North Carolina politician Michael Whatley was just exposed for knowing virtually nothing about the state’s Stanley Cup finalist team and using AI to make a hockey graphic.
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On Tuesday night, just before the Carolina Hurricanes‘ first Stanley Cup home game since 2006, Whatley took to X, formerly Twitter, to post a graphic supporting the team. However, hockey fans instantly picked up on the randomly-generated player that did not resemble a Hurricanes player.
The day after, Whatley was asked about the graphic, along with his three favorite Carolina hockey players. Let’s just hope he wasn’t trying to gain hockey fans’ votes in the upcoming election.
Here’s what the state’s politician had to say about his favorite players on the Stanley Cup finalist’s squad.
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Whatley is running for North Carolina’s senator position in 2026 in the Republican Party. The politician was raised in Blowing Rock, N.C., according to his campaign website, and attended Watauga High School in Boone, N.C.
He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a History degree and earned his Master’s in Religion at Wake Forest University. After attending the University of Notre Dame, he walked out with both a law degree and a Master’s in Theology.
Whatley has been tasked with leading the Presidential Transition’s Energy, Environment, and Agriculture teams after Trump’s 2016 victory, along with serving as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee after President Trump asked him to help lead the party’s efforts in 2024.
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According to Whatley’s X (formerly Twitter) page, he is a “Trump-endorsed conservative running for U.S. Senate to defend our values & secure America’s future.”
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Ahead of Carolina’s first time hosting a Stanley Cup Finals game in 20 years, Whatley took to social media to post about the team’s upcoming game. The U.S. Senate candidate posted a graphic featuring the teams’ logos, the puck drop time, and a man in a Hurricanes uniform.
One problem: hockey fans had a tough time figuring out which player Whatley actually featured in the graphic. No one on Carolina’s roster looked like that, causing fans to immediately sniff out the obvious use of AI generation.
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Here is a look at the graphic:
