MONTREAL, QUÉBEC (WIS) Earlier this week, a report surfaced in a Montreal newspaper that former South Carolina QB Stephen Garcia injured his fingers in a most peculiar way after signing with the Montreal Alouettes, a professional football team in Canada.
The Montreal Gazette published a report on July 3 saying that the former Gamecocks gunslinger injured two of his fingers flashing the peace sign after getting off the team bus.
Several national news outlets, including Sports Illustrated and USA Today, picked up the story, which has now disappeared from the Gazette's website.
It turns out, according to one media outlet, the incident never happened.
Augusta television station WJBF is now reporting that a spokesperson for the Alouettes has dismissed the story as fiction.
Director of Communications Charles Rooke told WJBF that a member of the Alouettes organization mentioned the story to Montreal reporter as a joke, but the reporter wrote it as truth.
Garcia is listed on the team's injured list, but the reason has not been released by the team.
Our calls and emails to the team's spokesperson to try to clarify the situation have not been returned.
Garcia signed with the Canadian Football League team after going undrafted in the 2012 NFL Draft. However, Garcia did impress at the Alouettes' open tryout on April 30 and earned himself a 3-year contract with the team.
The Alouettes are one of Canada's most successful CFL teams, having won three championships in the past decade.
Garcia was suspended five times by USC before ultimately being let go on October 11, 2011.
He finished his career as a Gamecock with 7,597 passing yards and a 57.7% completion rate, with 47 touchdowns and 41 interceptions. He became the third quarterback in school history to throw for more than 7,500 yards in a career, and also ranks third on the all-time charts in pass attempts, pass completions and passing touchdowns.
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Stephen Garcia (Source: The Big Spur)
