Law

Philadelphia has learned its lesson the hard way: football makes people a little crazy. (Go birds!) Police here even grease downtown light poles before important games to keep rowdy fans from climbing them.

But Matthew Gabriel, 25, who lives in Philly’s Mt. Airy neighborhood, took his football fanaticism to a whole ‘nother level. For reasons that remain unclear, Gabriel grew incensed with a University of Iowa student who was also a member of Gabriel’s fantasy football group chat.

So Gabriel did what anyone might do under such circumstances: He waited until the student went to Norway for a study abroad visit in August 2023, then contacted Norwegian investigators (Politiets Sikkerhetstjeneste) through an online “tip” form and told them that the student was planning a mass shooting. Gabriel’s message read, in part:

On August 15th a man named [student’s name] is headed around oslo and has a shooting planned with multiple people on his side involved. they plan to take as many as they can at a concert and then head to a department store. I don’t know any more people then that, I just can’t have random people dying on my conscience. he plans to arrive there unarmed spend a couple days normal and then execute the attack. please be ready. he is around a 5 foot 7 read head coming from America, on the 10th or 11th I believe. he should have weapons with him. please be careful

Police in both Norway and the US spent “hundreds of man-hours” reacting to this tip, according to the US government, even though the threat was entirely bogus. When eventually questioned by the FBI, Gabriel admitted the whole thing was a hoax.

But while the government was preparing to prosecute him for one false claim, Gabriel filed another one in March 2024. This time, it was a bomb threat emailed to administrators at the University of Iowa.

“Hello,” it began. “I saw this in a group chat I’m in and just want to make sure everyone is safe and fine. I don’t want anything bad to happen to any body. Thank you. A man named [student’s name] from I believe Nebraska sent this, and I want to make sure that it is a joke and no one will get hurt.”

Gabriel then attached a screenshot pulled from his group chat, which stated, “Hello University of Iowa a man named [student name] told me he was gonna blow up the school.” This was no fake image; it was in fact a real screenshot. But it was also a joke—made in reaction to the previous incident—and Gabriel knew this.

The government found none of this humorous and charged Gabriel with two counts of “interstate and foreign communication of a threat to injure.”

This week, at the federal courthouse in downtown Philly, Gabriel pled guilty to both actions; he will be sentenced in January. (Though he could have faced five years in prison, local media are reporting that he reached a deal with the feds in which they will recommend 15 months of house arrest instead.)

Gabriel’s lawyer has given some choice quotes about the case this week, including, “This guy is fortunate as hell to get house arrest” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “I don’t know what he was thinking. It was definitely not smart” (NBC News), and “I’m an Eagles fan” (Inquirer again—always important to get this out there in Philly).

US Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero offered some unsolicited thoughts of her own about fantasy football group chat behavior, saying in a statement, “My advice to keyboard warriors who’d like to avoid federal charges: always think of the potential consequences before you hit ‘post’ or ‘send.'”

At least this international bad behavior isn’t solely an American export. We import it, too. Over the summer, the US Department of Justice announced that two men, one from Romania and one from Serbia, spent the last several years making fake “swatting” calls to US police and had targeted 101 people, including members of Congress.