Another day, another Twitter controversy. This time it involves, Jay Feely, a former NFL kicker and father of four. Just this past week, the athlete posted a photo to his account that angered thousands.

Notice anything strange about the photo?

Yep, that’s Feely’s teenaged daughter on prom night, posing with her boyfriend and her good, old dad. Seems like a sweet family memory on the surface, right? Well, if you look closely at the NFLer’s right hand, you will clearly see that he is holding a handgun; a threat, albeit a comical one, that is meant to freak out his daughter’s date.

He posted the photo along with this caption:

Wishing my beautiful daughter and her date a great prom. #BadBoys

If you’re not up on your 1990s buddy cop movies, then you may have missed the meaning behind the hashtag. Without revealing the entire plot of the Will Smith movie, let’s just say that the lead character threatened his daughter’s date with a gun in a similar manner to that of Feely.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Twitter had a field day with this post. Some people loved it, some people didn’t get it, but mostly, people were just really ticked off. Of course, the issue of timing came up from commenters more than once, after they pointed out that turning a gun towards a high schooler isn’t the best message to send at the moment.

But, gun violence aside, most were just angry that the former football player used his platform to perpetuate old stereotypes. Here’s what Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand had to say:

Oh yay– American dads have kicked off the season of “let’s pretend I’m going to shoot my daughter’s date for impugning her chastity” pics

Here’s Feely’s defense in regards to his controversial tweet:

The prom picture I posted was obviously intended to be a joke. My Daughter has dated her boyfriend for over a year and they knew I was joking.I take gun safety seriously (the gun was not loaded and had no clip in) and I did not intend to be insensitive to that important issue

Seems that he didn’t address the issue of sexism, but it’s good to know that Feely takes gun safety seriously! We guess…

So, what’s your take on this situation? Were you surprised by the strong reaction from this tweet? Were you offended? Should Feely remove the tweet?