ESPN's Laura Rutledge Made Burner Account To Defend Pro Athlete Husband

ESPN anchor and reporter Laura Rutledge revealed that she once made a burner account to defend her husband, former Major League Baseball infielder Josh Rutledge, from critics on the former Twitter app without his knowledge.

“When he was with the Angels, I made a fake Twitter — I’m admitting this, OK? I know this was wrong. I’m not doing it ever since,” Rutledge said the Marchand Sports Media podcast. “But this was a one-time thing, and the name was BillyHalo76 or something. And BillyHalo only tweeted positive things about Josh Rutledge, and then the occasional Mike Trout tweet, because I was like, ‘shoot, someone’s gonna figure this out.’

“So if anyone had said something negative about him, I would find them and then BillyHalo would be like, ‘you’re wrong,’ and back it up with stats. I don’t think Josh knows this. If he watches this, he’s gonna be really mad at me.”

Josh Rutledge was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the third-round of the 2010 MLB Draft and made his MLB debut on July 13, 2012, spending his first three seasons with the team before being traded to the then-Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in December 2014. The infielder spent the first half of the 2015 season with the Triple-A Salt Lake City Bees before once again being traded to the Boston Red Sox, having spent his final three seasons with the MLB franchise, as well as the 2017 season and part of the 2018 season with the San Francisco Giants' Triple-A affiliate Sacramento River Cats.

“I really struggled with it,” Laura said of criticism directed at her husband. “There were times when he played for the Red Sox … they had him at third base, and he hadn’t played third base since middle school. He barely played third base. And he’s at the hot corner and they’re in Fenway, he has a couple of errors in a game and people are booing him and I’m like, ‘shut up!'”

Laura has been one of ESPN's brightest stars for its football coverage, having hosted NFL Live and SEC Nation, as well as working as a sideline reporter opposite Lisa Salters on the network's Monday Night Football broadcasts.