Vile tweets can’t keep Duke down
DUKE RILEY has a stark message for the Twitter trolls who have been trying to make his life miserable this week, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’.
The 24-year-old linebacker stepped in last week to cover for injured Deion Jones as Atlanta beat Carolina, 31-24.
Riley’s individual performance came in for an avalanche of abuse when his hopeless attempt at a tackle let DJ Moore escape for a 51-yard touchdown.
The Falcons youngster knows he needs to improve to fill Jones’s huge shoes but having survived a lifethreatening bout of meningitis in childhood and being made homeless by Hurricane Katrina, he is putting it all in perspective.
Riley, preparing to face New Orleans tonight (Sky Sports Action, 5pm), said: “Honestly, I like it. It motivates me. I go on Twitter now and people are just dogging me.
“But it’s like, ‘Y’all don’t know me. If y’all knew me, you wouldn’t say nothing, because y’all would know what I put in, what I’ve been through’.
“Yeah, I missed the tackle at the end. Everybody misses tackles.
“I should have made the play. Of course I should have made it. The next step for me is to go all out and do what I can.
“The story is always going to flip around. It always has done that throughout my life, so I know it will.
“I just keep on digging – and I just keep doing what I do.”
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