Netflix's Next 'Untold' Is 'Wide Deceiver' — the Fake 49ers Wide Receiver Who Never Played a Down

Every con needs a uniform. Daejon Love's was a San Francisco 49ers helmet.

For years, according to federal prosecutors, Love posted videos of himself running routes and catching passes — sometimes shirtless on a beach, the helmet never far away — while presenting himself online as a 49ers wide receiver. There were staged displays of wealth, a mock contract signing, even a claim that the team had sent him a birthday cake bearing his fake No. 7 jersey. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon says the performance had a purpose: to persuade women he met on dating apps and social media to hand over money for high-yield investments that did not exist.

On Wednesday, Netflix announced that the case will become the next installment of Untold, its acclaimed sports documentary series. The film is titled Untold: Wide Deceiver — a play on the position Love pretended to play and the nickname the internet gave him after his arrest. Netflix, announcing the film on Tudum, said it will "unpack the internet nickname and the far darker story it exposed," and that it will be told firsthand by the people the alleged scheme hurt. The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the project, says the film will center on the women's accounts and is not expected to include participation from Love himself.

The persona

The indictment, as summarized by the U.S. Attorney's Office, alleges that from at least February 2022 until his arrest this August, Love used online dating and social media profiles filled with fabricated personal and financial information, developed romantic relationships with victims, and staged displays of wealth to persuade them to send cash or wire funds. Prosecutors say he presented himself as a wealthy real estate investor or as a current or former NFL player — often, specifically, a 49ers wide receiver — and that he worked under a string of aliases, including Jon Love, Avril Lyto Love, Jordan Love and Prince Love.

The details that made the case go viral were the props. Fox News reported that when women asked why he was not on the active roster, Love pointed to an allegedly injured finger. In one Instagram video described by Fox News, he showed followers an AI-generated Google search snippet that had erroneously listed him as a 49ers receiver and insisted the listing proved his story. The New York Post reported that one alleged victim, Gwen Herndon, had submitted a complaint about Love through the 49ers' own website back in December — months before his arrest — a detail that cuts against the team's position that it had not been told what he was doing. Even inside the building, the story became impossible to ignore: Black Sports Online reported that a 49ers wide receivers coach later joked about the case online.

Prosecutors say the money pitch came after the trust. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Love and a co-conspirator solicited victims to invest in fraudulent high-yield opportunities, including an account prosecutors called an "expedited account," which promised unusually large and rapid returns. Baller Alert reported that the alleged co-conspirator, 18-year-old Taylor Jamie Chan, is accused of posing as Love's financial adviser and helping to create false bank and investment statements. Instead of being invested, prosecutors say, the money went to personal expenses — travel, lodging, high-end vehicles, clothing and jewelry.

The case

The FBI arrested Love and Chan at the Boise airport on August 24. The criminal complaint listed at least 26 known victims across Oregon, Washington, California and Idaho, and financial records initially identified roughly $1.3 million sent to the pair, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The investigation has kept growing since: ESPN reported in September that the FBI had identified another 35 women who reported possible victimization, and the Portland FBI's special agent in charge, Doug Olson, described the alleged scheme as "bespoke" — tailored to each woman.

On Tuesday, Love made his initial appearance in federal court in Portland. A federal grand jury has indicted him on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. He was arraigned, pleaded not guilty, and was ordered detained pending a jury trial scheduled to begin on December 15, 2026. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine, and he would be required to forfeit property obtained with proceeds from the alleged scheme. Chan has been released under pretrial conditions, Black Sports Online reported.

An indictment is only an allegation, and Love is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty. But one fact in the case is not in dispute, and it is the one the whole persona was built to obscure: representatives for the NFL and the 49ers told investigators that Daejon Love never worked for either organization. There was no roster spot, no contract, no injured finger keeping him off the field. There was never a down of football.

Why this story, why this series

Untold, developed by Chapman Way and Maclain Way, has built its reputation on sports stories where the highlight reel is the least interesting part — the murder of Steve McNair, the Malice at the Palace, Johnny Manziel's collapse. Its most recent run this fall took on Vince Young, Olympic breakdancer Rachael Gunn, known as Raygun, and Mr. T. Wide Deceiver is produced by Propagate and Stardust Frames, in association with North of Now and The Cut. Netflix has announced no director and no premiere date; the film is in development, and its subject is, for now, a defendant awaiting trial rather than a retired athlete telling his own story.

That inversion is the point of the title. The internet treated "Wide Deceiver" as a punchline — the routes, the helmet, the cake. Netflix is betting the documentary lands differently when the people describing the scheme are the women who say they lost money, took out loans and trusted a man whose entire career was a costume. A jury in Portland may get to weigh the evidence first: the trial is set to open December 15, and whenever the film arrives, it will land in the middle of a case that is still very much live.

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