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Dee Ford, English woman who became Auburn fan via Twitter mixup, attends first Tiger game

Henry Bushnell
·Senior soccer reporter
Former Auburn linebacker Dee Ford – not to be confused with “boring surveyor from Kent” Dee Ford. (Getty)
Former Auburn linebacker Dee Ford – not to be confused with “boring surveyor from Kent” Dee Ford. (Getty)

Dee Ford is at Auburn’s football game on Saturday. In a straightforward world, that wouldn’t be a story. But when Auburn Twitter and mistaken identities get involved, nothing is straightforward. So this isn’t just a story; it’s a wild one.

The Dee Ford attending Auburn’s game against Liberty isn’t current Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Dee Ford. It’s the random English woman whom dozens of Twitter users thought was the then-Tigers pass-rusher in 2014. An out-of-nowhere tweet storm turned her into an avid Auburn fan. Five years later, the quirky story has come full circle.

How this Dee Ford became an Auburn fan

The story begins during the fall of 2013. Dee Ford the football player was excelling as a fifth-year senior. And random Twitter users were letting Dee Ford the “boring surveyor from Kent,” England, know about it. From the War Eagle Reader:

Ford would wake up to nonsensical tweets about hair color and esoteric hashtags like #WarEagle and #WDE. Finally, after some Googling, she learned why. Dee Ford, the dog-loving, commercial property surveyor from Gillingham, Kent, was being confused with Dee Ford, the piano-playing, standout defensive end from Auburn, Alabama. And what with not only their identical names, but their nearly identical Twitter handles (hers: @dee_ford, his: @dee_ford_), Ford knew it could continue.

In January 2014, the football-playing Ford, then an NFL prospect, even tweeted out his own handle wrong. After he impressed at the Senior Bowl, then-Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs made the same mistake that hundreds of fans had:

But he helped rectify the situation by inviting the English Ford to join the Auburn football family:

By that point, Ford the surveyor had already begun interacting with Auburn fans on Twitter. Before long, she was sold. She received the gear from Jacobs, and became a Tigers fan.

Now her Twitter bio reads: “NOTE! I am not the Auburn/Kansas City Chiefs footballer, who is @dee_ford_ I’m a boring surveyor from Kent but now also a firm member of the #AUfamily #WarEagle”

Ford makes her first trip to Auburn

Five years later, she hopped on a plane, flew across the pond, and completed her ascent to Auburn Superfan.

She was received like a celebrity. She met athletic director Allen Greene and head coach Gus Malzahn, plus other members of the Auburn athletics hierarchy:

And now she gets to see the Tigers – her Tigers – smash Liberty.

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