DeAndre Hopkins
DeAndre Hopkins/ Courtesy Houston Texans

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – So DeAndre Hopkins reached out to me about a Thursday tweet where I shared a few quotes I believed I got from him in a text exchange.

It turns out they were from someone with an old phone number of his who decided to play me by acting as if he was Hopkins when I reached out.

I foolishly fell for it, landing in a spot where I’ve got to write this post, apologize to you, thank him for being cool about it and walk away embarrassed and able to laugh at myself after a period of torture.

Who are we kidding? I'm still tortured.

I had hoped to be able to actually speak with him, of course, replacing some stand-in's words with his own but despite our DMs and texts after I did find his current number, I’ve not been able to pull that off. [Unlocked]

The initial post is removed but I know the quotes were picked up and used as his words elsewhere. I hope people will take them down.

Beat me up for the brutal mistake. You won’t do a better job than I am doing.

I’ll apologize to him again next week when I meet him.

I’ve already told Tim Kelly it was bogus, though I imagine Pretty Boy Kelly may stick as a nickname for some since Imaginary DeAndre used it. Maybe that will serve to lighten the mood at times.

Certainly, I’ll be the butt of the joke, not Kelly or Hopkins.