Matt Leinart is the latest celebrity to face backlash for complaining about COVID-19 restrictions
Matt Leinart was Twitter’s punching bag on Sunday night after threatening to move over Los Angeles’s restaurant shutdown. The former USC quarterback is the latest celebrity to be labeled “out of touch” for his reaction to new COVID-19 restrictions.
As coronavirus cases surge in L.A. County, the city announced indoor and outdoor dining will close this week. “LA just closed all dining INDOOR/OUTDOOR for 3 weeks? Can’t wait to move out of this awful place,” Leinart wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “Ridiculous.”
The 2004 Heisman Trophy winner was immediately slammed, with one person noting that his $2.245 million home in Manhattan Beach, Calif. “sounds like a nice place to enjoy some takeout.”
The formal dining room of a $2.245-million house in Manhattan Beach sounds like a nice place to enjoy some takeout. https://t.co/nXfuNNaUta pic.twitter.com/3TvMVjupZp
— Laura J. Nelson 🦅 (@laura_nelson) November 23, 2020
“The only thing more out of touch than griping about having to get takeout is thinking deleting a tweet cuts it in 2020,” wrote someone else.
Oh Matt Leinart, the only thing more out of touch than griping about having to get takeout is thinking deleting a tweet cuts it in 2020. Not only did many someones undoubtedly screenshot your tantrum, but someone also did you the favor of updating your Wikipedia ... pic.twitter.com/K6uTKjjein
— Douglas Farmer (@D_Farmer) November 23, 2020
Leinart was also called “selfish” and a “huge disappointment” while others just mocked the Fox Sports analyst.
Oh now I see. Matt Leinart is just a selfish with privileges. pic.twitter.com/wTWsC6dAIC
— Liliana (@jarochafalcon) November 23, 2020
People dying and out of work and Matt Leinart is mad he can’t eat out for 3 weeks
— Beijing Grinchie (@Grinch21188235) November 23, 2020
Matt Leinart continues to be a huge disappointment 😑 https://t.co/KS7WYtROqp
— Brian Murray (@bmurray1215) November 23, 2020
How will the state of California survive without...Matt Leinart https://t.co/KNfsbSInxT
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) November 23, 2020
Anyone shocked that Matt Leinart thinks a global pandemic that has killed 260K people is fake? I’m not. pic.twitter.com/eqzcGxGlPj
— UCLA Nation (@UCLA_Nation) November 23, 2020
Matt Leinart should love takeout restaurants anyway. All he has to do is execute a handoff, which is all he's had to do his entire public life
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) November 23, 2020
Matt Leinart is a rich white man from Orange County. He is exactly who you think he is.
— Ryan Rosenblatt, World Series Champion (@RyanRosenblatt) November 23, 2020
Matt Leinart, famously being known for being associated with following the rules
— The Lanzadorian (@BenLanza) November 23, 2020
Leinart responded to the backlash in real-time, slamming “lefties” and said he wears a mask. “Stop being bullies!” he wrote.
Lefties 🤷🏻?♂?
— Matt Leinart (@MattLeinartQB) November 23, 2020
I wear a mask. I go to the grocery store. I cook my own food. I have a wife and kids. My dad is high risk and we are careful. You all are too much! Stop being bullies! 🤷🏻?♂?🙏💪🏼?🏻:)
— Matt Leinart (@MattLeinartQB) November 23, 2020
The former college athlete’s wife, Josie Loren, jumped into the fray, too. The actor and activist said their frustration has “nothing to do with eating out.”
“We’ve seen our friends’ & family’s businesses struggle & most importantly, have seen the toll this has taken on kids not being able to return to school,” she wrote on Sunday.
Considering the comments, I’ll leave it at this...Just because I disagree with certain guidelines, doesn’t mean I think there should be no guidelines. We ALWAYS wear our mask, don’t attend large gatherings, & this week alone I’ve been tested twice to ensure the safety of my kids
— Josie Loren (@josloren) November 23, 2020
& family. With that said, we’ve seen our friends’ & family’s businesses struggle & most importantly, have seen the toll this has taken on kids not being able to return to school. This has NOTHING to do with eating out. And for the record, I’m an attorney, not a trophy wife.
— Josie Loren (@josloren) November 23, 2020
Leinart’s remark comes after Kelly Stafford vented about COVID-19 restrictions, which also didn’t go over very well.
Kelly, wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, recently lamented she was over living “in a dictatorship that we call Michigan.” Her comments were in response to the state’s emergency order calling for a “three-week pause” on indoor gatherings.
“If you are at risk, do not leave your house until there’s a vaccine. But shutting down all these small businesses, things that people have worked their life for, shutting them down again is not the answer. Because they will not make it,” she said on her Instagram Live last week. “So once we are able to leave our house, once this dictatorship decides to let us have some freedom, there will be nothing left. I’m just over it. I see all these people and it brings me to tears.”
Kelly later apologized for using the word “dictatorship” and said she got “caught up in the moment.”
“I care about the people who are losing their lives or battling this.. and also the medical staff who care for them,” she wrote. “And it is hard knowing these local business owners and watching them struggle and having to lay off their employees, not knowing how they are gonna make it. So I’m sorry, I let my emotions get the best of me.”
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC’s and WHO’s resource guides.
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