Josh Hough’s afternoon at West Virginia ended with an injury, and then his ride off the field took on a life of its own.
The Cincinnati defensive lineman was hurt midway through the second quarter of Saturday’s game at Milan Puskar Stadium, and as West Virginia’s medical cart reversed with him aboard, it backed toward a sideline wall. TNT’s broadcast caught the moment, and a clip of it spread across X.
Hough was ruled out for the rest of the game, according to the Sporting News. Online, the clip set off a wave of jokes and a heated argument over whether the cart, or Hough’s leg, ever actually touched the wall.
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One account sharing the clip on X went straight at the driving: “Absurd driving from the Mountaineer medical team.”
The broadcast replay showed Hough being carted off with what the Sporting News called a lower-extremity injury. The outlet reported that West Virginia’s cart operator backed up against a sideline wall and that Hough was in noticeable pain afterward. WV Sports Now wrote that the cart accidentally backed him into the wall.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Elijah Gunn and freshman Jonathan Rulo were among the players filling in for Hough, a 6-foot-2, 335-pound sixth-year player.
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The replies and quote tweets answering that post mostly ran with the joke, and one account said simply, “I cannot believe this is a real video.” BearcatJournal.com, a fan site that covers Bearcats athletics, went straight for the legal angle, tagging another account to ask about a claim:
It had company. Fans in the replies told someone to call a lawyer, said the player should sue and called for the driver to be investigated. Several others landed on the same movie reference, with one asking, “What in the Austin Powers is this?”
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Replies Are Divided Over Whether the Cart Ever Touched the Wall
The outlets’ description of Hough being backed into or against the wall is exactly what several replies disputed, starting with the top reply to the post: “I don’t see anything wrong with this… didn’t even hit the wall? Was close but never touched it.”
Another reply was blunter, saying people were “flat out lying about what happened” and insisting that neither Hough’s feet nor the cart touched the wall. A quote tweet said calling it a slam was a big exaggeration, and one more reply suggested Hough winced because he leaned forward to put his hand on the wall.
The other side wasn’t buying it. One reply argued Hough’s leg was pinned between the cart and the wall because the cart got so close, while one account fired back at the skeptics directly: “Are you blind? The players left leg got pinned.”
What none of it settles is how badly Hough is hurt. There has been no word on the extent of the injury that put him on that cart in the first place.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.