Some oblivious Lyft riders didn’t realize Shaq was their driver
Shaquille O’Neal is recognizable not only because he’s a world-famous athlete and media personality, but because he’s 7-1 and weighs more than 300 pounds. Forget the four championships and 15 All-Star selections — people know Shaq just because he’s so big. It figures that anyone with some knowledge of American popular culture who came across him in public would know him right away.
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Unless you’re an unsuspecting passenger using the ride-share/future-cab Lyft. A new promotional clip for the company shows O’Neal in various disguises as a driver, talking with passengers who somehow do not recognize him beneath his comically large afro or Emo Tobey Maguire in “Spider-Man 3” get-up. Take a look at this clip from SportsDash to see how it went down:
Sports personalities such as Danica Patrick and Jerry Rice have gone undercover for this Lyft series before, but it was obviously much easier to disguise them with some basic makeup work and new clothing. Shaq provided a different challenge, and the solution was apparently to make him look as ridiculous as possible.
According to the clip, two-thirds of passengers were fooled. We can only assume they followed the common ride-share practice of not looking their driver directly in the eyes.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
