Only In Florida
Golfer has incredible run-in with the man who stole $22 million from the Jacksonville Jaguars enroute to TPC Sawgrass
One of the most underreported sports stories of the week is that of Amit Patel. According to The Athletic, this week Patel—a former Jacksonville Jaguars employee who was fired back in February—was formerly accused in a court filing of stealing over $22 million from the franchise while employed there between 2018 and 2023. If true, it would go down as one of the most significant cases of fraud in NFL history, with Patel allegedly exploiting the team’s virtual credit card program to buy two cars, a condo, a $95K watch and even a country club membership. He also reportedly used the embezzled funds to purchase NFTs and place various bets online.
It’s a strange story to be sure, but just wait, it gets even stranger. This week Chris Chaney—an online golf personality/blogger and managing editor at SwingU—was in the Jacksonville area to attend the Jaguars-Bengals game on Monday night and play TPC Sawgrass. Chaney hailed an Uber to take him from Jacksonville to Ponte Vedre for his tee time, and that’s where he swears he bumped into the most wanted man in Duval. Check it out.
Wild, wild stuff. To corroborate his experience, Chaney shared a screenshot of his Uber receipt, which clearly shows the driver’s name as “Amit.” According to Chaney, the man who may have been Patel was also driving a Tesla Model 3, one of the pair of cars Patel is accused of buying for himself in the court documents. Patel’s photo also made its way around the Internet throughout the week, making a case mistaken identity even less likely.
In the end, Chaney’s story is nothing more than an amusing anecdote—a harmless example of life’s curious happenstances—but that makes it no less jaw dropping. Needless to say, if you’re headed to TPC Sawgrass in the coming weeks, keep your eyes peeled for an Uber driver in a Tesla named Amit. If the accusations are true, he’ll be giving as many rides as he possibly can in the foreseeable future.
