Getty Images

A couple of weeks ago, a widely reported story said that Barry Switzer, the Super Bowl-winning former coach of the Cowboys had a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump. Switzer now says the whole thing was a joke, and he was surprised by how gullible the media were.

Many outlets reported the meeting as fact, as in this ESPN.com article that says, “Switzer, a college football Hall of Fame coach who led the Cowboys to a Super Bowl title in 1996, visited with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday in New York.” The reality is nothing of the kind happened.

Switzer told Politico that in reality he was simply getting coffee in Trump Tower while traveling to New York, and when reporters spotted him and asked him what he was doing, he joked that he was meeting with the next president. Reporters believed him.

“All the media people said, ‘Coach what are you doing here,'” Switzer said. “I told them I was here to see the president like everyone else. . . . I told the reporters I had a great visit, and that we were going to make the wishbone great again. I told them I was going to be Secretary of Offense and that Trump knew how to run the ball down the field. Then I went back to my hotel and laughed my ass off. It went everywhere. Everyone believed it. I had all these calls, but I was just jerking people around.”

Switzer has always been a joker, and so it’s no surprise that these comments were not serious. It’s more surprising that many outlets took them seriously.