After dropping a game-tying pass in the AFC divisional-round game against the Buffalo Bills last season, tight end Mark Andrews suffered an onslaught of hate on social media but quietly stood his ground, posting a stand-alone statement without responding to any of the attacks.

However, when a fake quote about keeping politics out of football was falsely attributed to him in the wake of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, he made the decision to publicly call out the viral tweet as fabricated.

“The main thing is, at the end of the day, you’ve got to control the narrative, and if people are believing in that narrative, then it’s time to speak up,” Andrews said. “For me, it’s being able to speak out and show those weren’t my words.”

On Wednesday, an X account under the name Josh Dunlap, whose bio proclaims him the “MAYOR OF MAGADONIA,” posted a quote purportedly from Andrews:

“Football should be about the game. The competition and the fans — NOT POLITICS. Stop bringing up Charlie Kirk. Because it has nothing to do with what we do on the field.”

Kirk, a 31-year-old right-wing media figure and ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during a public appearance at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.

The post was accompanied by a graphic with Andrews’ face and the words of the fabricated quote, along with a question about whether people agreed with Andrews. Those who did not were vocal and brutal in their responses. As of Thursday evening, the X post has 2.2 million views, 244 reposts, 520 likes and over 1,500 comments.

Another account with the display name “SweetMarie,” whose bio says “Sarcastic Trump lover,” posted the same graphic with a caption, “Wow, horrible man.” That got over 218,000 views, 1,400 reposts, 3,900 likes and 2,700 comments.

Andrews responded to Dunlap’s post the next morning, saying, “This is 100% fabricated. You got the wrong person.”

“I think, in today’s day and age, it’s so easy to follow a narrative,” Andrews said. “You just put someone’s face on it, and you quote tweet it. It looks like that person says it.”

Andrews said he’s seen an uptick in fake quotes, accounts and bots in the past year or so. And it seems there are no repercussions for spreading false information.

He said “you couldn’t even imagine” some of the things he’s seen or had sent to him. Teammates also said they get sent their own quotes that they didn’t say.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson also had a quote falsely attributed to him regarding Kirk that got over 1.7 million views when, in fact, he had just reposted the message former Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith wrote about Kirk’s killing.

Another graphic by an aggregator account claimed Jackson said he would not play a game in Russia or Israel. In reality, Jackson said during an appearance on “Sundae Conversation” that he wouldn’t play in a war zone. He did not single out a particular country.

“I’d rather stay in the U.S. and let them sort it out,” he said.

When host Caleb Pressley joked “you’re not breaking any rushing records in Moscow,” Jackson just laughed.

“The main thing is to not jump to conclusions in this day and age,” Andrews said. “There’s too much hate in the world. There’s too much hate going around. I think there needs to be more love and more factual stuff. At the end of the day, you can’t be believing fabricated stuff like that.”