Acclaimed musician and Ohio-native John Stephens, known to fans as John Legend, lost some University of Michigan fans this weekend by tweeting about his love for Ohio State University during The Game.
Legend, who attended the University of Pennsylvania but grew up in Ohio, has not kept his Buckeye love a secret. A 2011 interview with ESPN proclaims OSU stickers cover “almost every inch of Legend’s piano.” However, his Saturday tweet alarmed many of Legend’s fans who side with the maize and blue.
“Chrissy asked me how is this a rivalry if Ohio St has won 13 of the last 14. Excellent question,” Legend tweeted.
The tweet was in response to a video Legend’s wife, model Chrissy Teigen, tweeted earlier in the afternoon of Legend and their daughter, Luna, dancing around the living room after OSU scored a touchdown.
Some fans completely denounced the couple after their tweets, even going so far as to unfollow them on Twitter. Teigen posted a second tweet bemoaning the loss of her own followers because of Legend’s status as a Buckeye fan.
Twitter user Cindy Geer similarly worried this had to be the end of her love for the family, and begged Teigen to tweet something pro-Michigan, or at least something to establish her neutrality.
Others, like Twitter user Matt Bauer, stood strong. Bauer proclaimed his allegiance to Michigan but decided his love for Teigen and Legend went beyond the rivalries of college football.
“I’m a Michigan man but I’m a bigger fan of you so I’m staying,” Bauer wrote in response to Teigen’s second tweet.