
A vibrant floodlight of speculation cast its glow on Mark Davis, the illustrious 69-year-old billionaire owner of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. The word on the street was that the much-admired socialite and Cirque du Solei choreographer turned performer, 26-year-old Hayden Hopkins, was pregnant and Davis was the father. As titillating as the rumor claimed to be, it was unequivocally false.
Hayden Hopkins, a recognizable figure amongst Las Vegas socialites, decided to terminate the spreading conjecture once and for all. Renowned for her presence in the grandeur of Las Vegas culture, Hopkins turned to social media to assert that the parent of her unborn child was, contrary to persistent rumor, not Mark Davis.
The wildfire of the rumor trace back to the NFL blogger Dov Kleiman, a figure quite known for his controversial posts and audacious self-proclamation as “the best and most accurate” aggregator of professional football news. His post followed Hopkins’ announcement of her pregnancy on her social media platforms. As the news of the unexpected pregnancy echoed throughout the digital sphere, Kleiman was swift to fan the flames with his ill-founded assumptions, almost mistaken for fact, that Davis was the prospective father.
In an unfortunate twist of details, Kleiman tweeted and announced, “Congrats! 26-year-old Hayden Hopkins, girlfriend of Raiders owner Mark Davis (70), is pregnant. Happy for the power couple,” despite the fact that the information was not just premature, but entirely baseless. Yet, the inaccuracy didn’t stop at the paternity. He also misstated Davis’ age.
Hopkins was prompt in quashing the unfounded speculation, affirming, “Reports of Mark Davis being the father of my child are wildly untrue.” She further clarified that she was merely photographed with Davis at a game in 2022. The incident sadly opened the Pandora’s box of baseless rumors about their romantic relationship.
The father of her child, affirmed Hopkins, was her boyfriend, a 30-year-old MLB player named Joey Gallo who plays with the Washington Nationals. Gallo, a true-blue Nevadan, hails from Henderson and attended Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. Hopkins admitted the stress of the unwanted rumours have begun to tarnish her joy, adding, “Joey and I are excited to welcome our baby in the fall.”
Davis, who remains single and childless despite his astounding wealth of $2.3 billion estimated by Forbes, appeared to be unscathed by the incident. Fellow blogger, Kleiman, meanwhile has pulled down his erroneous post.
In a larger part of Davis’ life narrative, he’s most noted for relocating his revered NFL franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020. The Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium, erected to seat his Raiders, cost $1.9 billion, $750 million of which was local tax-generated. Visitors contribute to this through a marginal hotel tax imposed on rooms in Clark County.
The helm of the Raiders fell into Davis’ lap after his father, Al Davis, passed away in 2011. Al was the pioneering force behind the merger of NFL and American Football League in 1970. Failing to secure financial support from Oakland for a new stadium, resulting in a series of losing seasons, Davis eventually moved the team.
The Raiders’ relocation to the Las Vegas, the casino capital of the United States, significantly boosted the team’s value. As per Forbes, the Raiders are currently the sixth most valuable team in the NFL, with an estimated worth of approximately $6.2 billion.
In fact, the push for an NFL stadium was driven by the late Sheldon Adelson, billionaire founder of Las Vegas Sands empire. Sheldon was reportedly interested in owning an NFL team following a change in the league’s stance towards casino owners controlling franchises. This shift happened after the US Supreme Court repealed a federal sports betting law in May 2018, instigating a surge in sports betting and the NFL’s acceptance of the activity across the country.