The daylong saga of the scam surrounding Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph’s gloves will have a happy ending.
Early Wednesday afternoon, a person on Twitter posted a photo of a completed eBay auction on “Vikings Kyle Rudolph Playoff Game Used Gloves Vs Saints 2020,” with the gloves having sold for $375.50. Rudolph replied to the tweet and explained that in the locker room following the Vikings’ 26-20 overtime victory in a wild-card game in New Orleans last Sunday, a “member of the media” asked Rudolph if he could have his gloves for a charity event.
Rudolph said he not only gave the person the gloves — those he wore when he made the game-winning catch — but he signed them, as well.
“Well he got me, sold on eBay 3 days later,” Rudolph ended the tweet with.
Rudolph followed that up with another tweet that read, “And to clarify it was not anyone I knew. So wasn’t a local reporter I see daily or national reporter,” a follow-up tweet read. “Locker room was a zoo, he asked for them, I said of course and even offered to sign them…”
According to a story by ESPN on Wednesday night, the purchaser was 34-year-old Jason King, a lifelong Vikings fan and memorabilia collector. And, according to the story, when King saw news of the scam circulating Wednesday afternoon, he tweeted to Rudolph that he was the buyer of the gloves and that he would donate them to charity.
In return, Rudolph told King he would send him the gloves he wears during the Vikings’ divisional-round playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers this Saturday.
“If I end up receiving the gloves, I would like them to be displayed at the children’s hospital in honor of Kyle,” King told ESPN. “I have four kids myself, and I really appreciate the work he does off the field.”
The one caveat is that King has yet to receive the gloves, and he acknowledged that he does not know if the seller will ultimately send them.
King told ESPN if he does not receive the gloves, he will donate the money he would have spent on the gloves toward Kyle Rudolph’s End Zone, a 2,500-square-foot space at the Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis designed to help kids and teens have a place to play, relax and socialize.
