"The future, like the past, is already written," reads the cryptic bio of a Twitter user who calls himself Tommy Morrison. "We only have to learn to read it."
Morrison had less than 700 followers and only 26 tweets to his name at time of this writing. But he's on an unbelievably torrid streak of successfully predicting sports outcomes, particularly in the NFL. Or so it seems. He's either a sports-gambling savant, unbelievably lucky or simply an extremely dedicated troll. So which is it?
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Here's what we do know: On Sept. 3 of last year, Morrison predicted the Boston Red Sox would beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series:
Write this down right now. The Red Sox will beat the Cardinals to win the 2013 World Series.
— Tommy Morrison (@TommyMorrison0) September 4, 2013
Later, he correctly predicted the number of games games it would take for the Red Sox to win. On Oct. 31, both guesses came true. Then, on Sept. 4, he predicted the Seattle Seahawks would beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII:
Calling it before the season starts. The Seahawks will beat the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
— Tommy Morrison (@TommyMorrison0) September 5, 2013
That came true this Sunday. Then there's this tweet:
I'm 15-0 vs the spread on MNF games this season. This week, Forty-Niners (-13.5) will win but not cover over the Falcons.
— Tommy Morrison (@TommyMorrison0) December 24, 2013
We went back, and checked Morrison's Twitter timeline, finding correct predictions for each Monday Night Football game. So what gives?
Morrison's Twitter handle has been tweeted or retweeted more than 5,300 times since Sunday morning, according to Topsy. His "calling it before the season starts" post has been retweeted more than 5,000 times alone. But he hasn't exactly racked up the followers you would expect a gambling savant to attract. And only one media outlet, Vancouver-based The Province appears to have picked up the story.
Morrison did not immediately respond to a request for comment, so all we have are his tweets to sift through.
Until we hear from Morrison itself, here's our best hypothesis: He relied on a not-so-original trick, but took it to elaborate new heights. The ruse, in theory, is simple: Post a ton of different guesses to a little-followed account, then quietly delete the wrong ones, while leaving the correct ones intact. (With Twitter's crackdown on third-party services, it's harder to find information such as deleted tweets from users.) What you're left with is a pristine-looking record.
Now we're back to our original query, which we'll address in two parts. First, is this man a sports gambling savant? Probably not. Second, who is Tommy Morrison? We may never know, but our protagonist did leave one possible clue:
So sad my sporting namesake passed away this week. RIP to the boxer Tommy Morrison.
— Tommy Morrison (@TommyMorrison0) September 4, 2013
That Tommy Morrison was a boxer who died in September. Morrison's nickname was "The Duke" because he claimed to be the grandnephew of John Wayne — a boast that was never proven.
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