JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Trevor Lawrence received dozens of texts following his most recent haircut.
Even his grandma weighed in.
But no one had anything nice to say about what the Jacksonville Jaguars did — or seemingly did — to their franchise quarterback. The team’s schedule release video earlier this month featured Lawrence apparently getting his long blond locks chopped.
It turned out to be a deep fake.
“I got a lot of, ‘That’s not real, right?’” Lawrence said Tuesday after the Jacksonville Jaguars held their first of 10 organized team activities. “And I’m like, ‘No.’ They’re like, ’Oh, thank God. Then they say how bad it was. But I wonder what they would have said if I was like, ‘Yeah.’”
Jacksonville’s two-minute video titled “The Cut” got nearly 4 million views on X, formerly Twitter, and was in the top five among schedule videos dropped by NFL teams. It no doubt raised eyebrows, with many wondering whether Lawrence really opted for a haircut.
“People my age, typically, they don’t really believe it,” Lawrence said. “But then the older and older it gets, it’s like they just can’t quite figure out the AI and the fakes out there.”
The Jaguars cleared the air the following morning with a behind-the-scenes look at Lawrence getting fitted for a wig to wear in the video. One issue: the wig wasn’t anything that Lawrence would actually pick if he did cut his hair.
“It didn’t look good, but it looked real,” he said.
He added that he has no plans — “not anytime soon” — to change his signature look, especially not after his success last season. Lawrence threw for 4,007 yards and a career-high 29 touchdowns in 17 starts. He also ran for nine scores.
The Jaguars finished 13-4 in coach Liam Coen’s first season, won the AFC South and secured the No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Jacksonville returns 19 of 22 starters and hopes to make the postseason in consecutive years for the first time since 1998-99. One potential storyline to watch moving forward: free agent running back Chris Rodriguez, who signed a two-year, $10 million deal, was a no-show for the first voluntary workout, and Coen dodged details and said an “injury report will come out at some point.”
Although Lawrence’s fake haircut was among the topics discussed on opening day, kicker Cam Little actually did get a new ’do. He bleached his hair and even had to FaceTime his parents to convince them the photo he sent was real.
“He’s like a Chia pet,” Lawrence quipped. “He does some goofy stuff, but he’s one of the only people that can pull off the stuff he does. He has great style. I could never do that and look cool.”
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