Noah Lyles may have proven his hardwood haters wrong, but new naysayers are still popping up.
A day after Lyles won gold in the men’s 100-meter race in the Paris Olympics, he received an unwelcome greeting on social media from Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin.
“Noah Lyles is my least favorite American. Good morning,” Franklin posted on X on Monday morning.
Franklin, 28, started 16 games for the Indianapolis Colts in 2023.
The former seventh-round pick racked up 179 tackles, three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and six pass deflections in his sixth season in Indy, his second as a full-time starter.
Franklin’s play warranted the attention of his pro peers, who voted him No. 100 on the “NFL Top 100” list.
It’s not clear exactly why Franklin expressed his displeasure with Lyles, although the sprinter has ruffled feathers with other American athletes in the past.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
Last August, Lyles indicated that NBA players flaunting a “world championship” hadn’t actually beaten competitors from around the world, and thus couldn’t support that claim.
“World champion of what? The United States?” Lyles offered. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the U.S., at times. But that ain’t the world … there ain’t no flags in the NBA.”
In response, NBA stars and Team USA basketball standouts Kevin Durant and Bam Adebayo blasted Lyles on social media.
That made for a bit of awkwardness in Paris a year later, as several American basketball superstars were in attendance from Stade de France as Lyles prevailed by a fraction of a second over Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in a wild photo finish.
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For instance, Knicks guard Josh Hart fired a slew of tweets acknowledging that Lyles had proven him wrong.
“Lol na he an Olympic gold medalist. He can talk for life,” the 29-year-old wrote on X, adding a laughing emoji.
