'Twitter thugs' wanted to fight Seahawks' Cliff Avril after Tony Romo injury

Steven J. Gaither

'Twitter thugs' wanted to fight Seahawks' Cliff Avril after Tony Romo injury image

Tony Romo isn't mad at the Seahawks defender whose hit will ultimately cause Romo to miss a significant portion of the 2016 NFL season. Some of Romo's fans are a whole different story.

Seattle defensive end Cliff Avril says he was harassed by "Twitter thugs" after his hit on the Cowboys quarterback resulted in a compression fracture of the L1 vertebrae.

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"It finally died down the last day or two but it was a good six straight days," Avril said, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I got a couple of hundred mentions, people talking reckless. If they see me in the street they are going to fight me. A bunch of Twitter thugs."

For his part, Avril contacted Romo via voicemail and text message after the injury, which will force Romo to miss eight to 10 weeks. 

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"I hit him up to see how he was doing and to let him know it wasn't intentional," Avril said. "He hit me back saying it was football and it was a freak accident. He started joking and saying, 'You take care of the NFC West and we will see you in the playoffs.'"

If only his fans were that mature about the situation. 

"It was a football play," Avril said. "I was trying to get the ball out. It was a freak accident. I didn't think it was that crazy. It was an unfortunate situation. As pros we respect each other, we are not trying to hurt each other and put you out."

Steven J. Gaither