Football Passed Off With Phony J.J. Watt Autograph Gets Flagged

HOUSTON, TX — Someone tried to pass off a football with a phony J.J. Watt autograph at a recent charity event, only to get flagged. A man who won the football in a raffle posted a photo on Twitter. Watt saw the photo and noticed something very strange — his name was misspelled.

Watt, the NFL Man of the Year in 2017 for his efforts in fundraising in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, tweeted back that he would get the man a ball with the real-deal signature of the star defensive end for the Houston Texans.

Man, whoever faked my signature on that ball didn’t even know how to spell my name!

DM me an address and I’ll send you a proper signed ball to auction off. We can’t have people doing charity like that. https://t.co/Rcv7RfS8je

A man named Shane Allbright posted the photo originally, saying he won the ball at Heroes for Children Top Golf Charity.

One time for @JJWatt .. Heroes for Children Top Golf Charity pic.twitter.com/6Muv7EzT6X

Heroes For Children responded with this statement:

"It is Heroes for Children's mission to help families who have a child battling cancer in the state of Texas, and we would never want to do anything to compromise that. Today we hosted our annual golf tournament in Houston. A donor of Heroes for Children donated 2 footballs and a baseball to be used as a raffle to benefit our organization at the event. It has been brought to our attention that these were not authentic items, and we are beyond embarrassed and disappointed to have misrepresented their authenticity. We are refunding the donation and will return the items appropriately. In the future, we will go through the proper steps to ensure authenticity."

Heroes for Children website states it has shelled out $5.5 million to more than 5,000 families since 2004

In a report by Houston's ABC 13, Allbright threw praise at the NFL superstar.

"J.J. Watt took a negative moment and turned it into a positive moment. He's a real standup dude to reach out to me and I respect him for that," Allbright told ABC13. "J.J. Watt is super nice and it's just a crazy moment."

Image: J. J. Watt of the Houston Texans poses in front of his portrait backstage at the 7th Annual NFL Honors at the Cyrus Northrop Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Peter Barreras/Invision for NFL/AP Images)