Reese Donatelli has been a football prognosticator since before she could talk, selecting the NFL teams she thinks will win on her dad’s social media, often with unexpected accuracy.
For years, football fans have loved her sass and the excitement she exudes as she shouts out her picks, grabbing the anointed team’s helmet and sometimes tossing the opponent’s.
But when the 4-year-old’s predictions weren’t panning out during the first weekend of playoff games this month, the situation took a nasty turn. Followers began to think the teams she picked as winners were actually cursed to be losers.
Reese’s family started receiving death threats. Her dad, Anthony Donatelli, received messages from people saying they were owed thousands of dollars because her predictions were wrong.
“It’s nuts,” Donatelli, of Riverside, said. “She’s obviously not an NFL analyst. She’s picking teams based on the color of her dress, or she’ll pick the Packers because she likes cheese. She just relates these silly little things as reasons why she picks certain teams.”
Even rapper Cardi B joked about Reese’s picks becoming curses after the girl picked the New England Patriots to win over the Houston Texans this weekend. The rapper’s partner, Stefon Diggs, is a wide receiver on the team. During an Instagram live, Cardi B said that “little white girl said we’re going to win. F— that, b—!” before immediately apologizing and saying, “I didn’t mean to say that.”
In the end, Reese’s prediction that the Patriots would win was right. New England beat Houston 28-16 on Sunday, advancing to the AFC Championship game against the Denver Broncos.
Donatelli said that although Cardi B’s comment was “unfortunate,” he isn’t looking to feud with the Grammy winner.
“I’m not here to fight fire with fire. I’m not angry,” he said. “We don’t want anybody or anything to ruin what Reese and I have created and how we bond.”
The Donatellis’ Instagram series, now called “Trust the Toddler,” started nearly four years ago on a whim when Donatelli was looking to share the joy of football with his infant daughter.
Donatelli purchased NFL mini helmets on Amazon as a way to help Reese learn colors and geography and introduce her to the game he grew up watching with his father. When Donatelli, a lifelong Steelers fan, first placed helmets in front of her, she picked one up and chucked it across the room.
“I said, you know what, we might have something here,” he recalled, laughing. “It just clicked. I would put the match-ups of who was going to play that week in front of her, and for the past four years she’s been calling football games. And she’s been pretty dang good at it.”
But even the best guessers have their off days.
There were six games in the first week of the playoffs, and Reese guessed the wrong team would win each time. The next week, she was 1 for 9 after predicting that the Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears would win their respective games.
Amid the hoopla, Donatelli kept it lighthearted, posting on Instagram that “the curse has been reversed” alongside a photo of Reese, her fist pumped into the air in victory after she (rightly) predicted that the Patriots would beat the Texans.
Some still weren’t happy, but others kept up with the joke. One Instagram user deadpanned that they’d put “$10 million on Houston because of her,” adding that they’re in “more debt than the U.S. government now.”
Another follower offered a reality check for the haters: “If [you’re] letting a kid pick your parlays you shouldn’t be betting.”
Donatelli and Reese aren’t planning to stop their tradition anytime soon. For them, time spent watching Sunday football only strengthens their daddy-daughter bond, even if Reese’s team picks don’t always make it to the end zone.
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