Northwestern University alum Trevor Siemian will make history in a number of ways on Sept. 8 when he starts for the Denver Broncos. He becomes the first quarterback with zero NFL pass attempts in his career to start for the reigning Super Bowl champions. Siemian will also be the first Northwestern product to start an NFL game at quarterback since Randy Dean in 1979.
His alma mater decided to congratulate him for the honor via Twitter, and in so doing won the unofficial competition for weirdest congratulations tweet of the day.
Here's to #B1GCats with #HorsePower. Congrats to @Broncos starting QB @TrevorSiemian! #PurplePride #GoCats pic.twitter.com/a0SsbaFE4m
— Northwestern (@NorthwesternU) August 29, 2016
The account, which is unverified but shows all the signs of legitimacy dove deep into the internet meme well for this one.
Northwestern, whose mascot is the Wildcats, grabbed the bizarre house cat in a horse head mask image from a 2014 post on petslady.com.
The image, which looks like a murdered house pet from “The Godfather,” doesn’t exactly scream “Good luck!” or “Way to go!”
The school, known for its high academic standards much more than its football, quickly issued a follow-up post to clarify that it was not their photo and that no cats were harmed in the process. Either the images are photo-shopped (petslady.com doesn’t clarify) or they’re at least willing to pass the buck to the original authors.
No cats were harmed in the making of our tweets. Source: https://t.co/GaNw4qJbfi pic.twitter.com/65DmSrcs03
— Northwestern (@NorthwesternU) August 29, 2016
Siemian started only 14 games at Northwestern. He had a 7-7 record with 27 touchdowns and 24 interceptions.