Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has with ample help from the media played up his prior history as a high school football assistant coach to try to appeal to male voters.

Walz dropped the ball on Sunday, however, and prompted questions about the legitimacy of his claimed experience with the sport when he badly misused a common football term in a social media post, Fox News reported.

The post was quickly deleted, but not before screenshots were taken and widely shared among conservative and independent critics who called out the "coach" for his revealing misapplication of the football-related phrase.

"Coach" Walz displays apparent ignorance of common football term

According to the New York Post, Gov. Walz got together with progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Sunday afternoon -- while most football fans were watching the NFL's slate of games for the day -- to live stream themselves on Twitch playing the newest version of Madden football on Xbox.

The online event featured the two leftist Democrats discussing politics and various social issues while criticizing Republicans and the Trump-Vance campaign, often with false or misleading claims about their supposed plans and "playbook" for running the country if elected next month.

In a since-deleted X post to promote the Twitch stream, Walz wrote, "@AOC can run a mean pick 6 -- and I can call an audible on a play. And we both know that if you take the time to draw up a playbook, you're gonna use it."

The problem there, as even casual football fans could point out, is that you can't "run" a "pick 6" -- the term for a defensive pass interception returned for a touchdown -- the same way you can "run" a set offensive play.

Not a good way to appeal to male voters

The criticism and mockery of that since-deleted post began almost immediately as a screenshot was shared by the Trump War Room account in a post that said Gov. Walz "is such a dork. You’d think a so-called football coach would be aware that you don’t run a pick 6!"

"This was a real deleted tweet from alleged football coach Tampon Tim. 'Can run a mean pick 6' Lmfao," conservative commentator Greg Price said, and added, "The geniuses who run this campaign decided to appeal to men by having Tampon Tim stream Madden on Twitch on an NFL Sunday and then proceed to use the phrase 'run a pick 6' in a tweet lmfao."

Townhall columnist Dustin Grage quoted Walz's nonsensical football phrasing and sarcastically pondered with the laughing face emoji, "And they wonder why they can’t get men to vote for this ticket."

Walz's coaching claims questioned

The misuse of the common "pick 6" phrase for an unexpected defensive interception returned for a touchdown, which is not a set play a team could purposefully "run," prompted some critics to question the veracity of Gov. Walz's claim to have been a high school football coach before he entered politics nearly two decades ago.

GOP communications staffer Matt Whitlock posted, "I'm sorry but you can't convince me @Tim_Walz has ever actually coached any kind of football if he's tweeting 'run a mean pick 6.' You don't 'run a pick 6.'"

Media commentator Siraj Hashmi shared the ridiculous quote and asked rhetorically, "Are we sure Tim Walz has even watched a game of football, let alone coached a team?"

Conservative writer Mark Hemingway even brought Vice President Kamala Harris and her own questionable claims about her background into the mix as he quipped, "I'm not sure Kamala ever worked at McDonald's and now I'm unsure if Walz ever coached football."