Did Gordon Ramsay and staff refuse to serve Miami Dolphins players? Fact Check

Rumours are spreading online that claim British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey and his staff “took a knee” and refused to serve 4 Miami Dolphin football players as they tried to eat in one of his restaurants.

The rumours spread during controversial protests from a number of NFL players who have taken to kneeling during the national anthem played at the start of football games.

The rumours seem to derive from a story posted onto the website thelastlineofdefense.org on October 1st 2017 that reads in part –

Four Miami Dolphins showed up at Gordon Ramsay’s Soho Social Gastropub for a bite to eat after their horrible performance and disrespect for our flag and our country. Linebackers Malcolm Warner and Clyde Vargus along with right guard Jefferson Michaels and left tackle Mutombo Toki Del Fuego were seated at a corner booth.
Ramsay walked over and introduced himself, telling them that he had followed all of the drama on TV, and invited them to join him at the pass for “something special.” LLOD correspondent Cynthia Luwhoe, who was enjoying a French Dip at the time, reported in on what happened next:
“Ramsay had the entire staff gather at the pass and instructed them to take a knee. ‘You are four of the most disrespectfrul young men I’ve ever met, said Ramsay, ‘my staff is better than that; better than you. You won’rt be getting service here tonight. F*ck off with the lot of you.’”

[sic]

The story is completely fake. A number of giveaways are present that expose this story as fake. For one, the Miami Dolphins players mentioned in the article – Malcolm Warner, Clyde Vargus, Jefferson Michaels or Mutombo Toki Del Fuego- don’t even seem to exist and are not rostered onto the current Miami Dolphins team.

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Perhaps more tellingly though is that the site that started this rumour – thelastlineofdefense.org – is a popular fake news website that deals with publishing exclusively fake news. It has started a number of fake news stories in the past. ThatsFake.com describes the site as fake news.

The site has a disclaimer at the end of each article at the bottom of the webpage that reads –

In a cynical world where the news of the day often seems fake, The Last Line of Defense offers today’s busy conservative a place to go to read things they’ll enjoy and congregate with a bunch of people they agree with. So while everything on this site is a satirical work of fiction, we are proud to present it to those who will have called it real anyway.

As such, the story is clearly not real and we don’t recommend spreading it.