NRL captain believes wild flat Earth conspiracy theory: ‘It is’

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs captain Matt Burton believes the world is flat.

There’s a sentence no one was expecting to read.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: NRL captain believes the world is flat.

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The 23-year-old NRL star tied himself in a knot speaking on Let’s Trot, a podcast hosted by current Bulldogs teammate Josh Addo-Carr and former club great Josh Mansour, trying to give his opinion on the wild conspiracy theory.

A level-headed young man whose rise to captaincy at such a young age speaks volumes about his maturity on and off the field, Burton has already represented New South Wales and Australia at higher levels.

But he came unstuck participating in a segment of Let’s Trot where a question by the previous guest is left for the current guest to answer.

For Burton, radio presenter Kris Fade left him a curly one.

“Do you believe that the world is flat?” Burton read from a card that had Kris Fade’s name on it.

“If no, some people do. What would you say to them?”

Mansour was blown away that the question was even asked.

“It’s the most random … I did not expect that at all,” he said with a laugh, expecting Burton to denounce the question immediately.

But that’s not what happened.

“It’s a tough one, aye. ’Do you believe the world is flat?’” he repeated to himself

“I don’t know, aye. Yeah, I believe it is.”

Incredulous, Mansour immediately shot back: “No you don’t”.

“Yeah I do,” Burton answered.

“You believe the world is flat?” Mansour pressed, for clarity.

“Yeah. Well, like, it’s round. But it’s obviously flat because, if it was … I don’t know. I actually don’t know.”

Mansour tried to bring some sense and rationality into the conversation, but even he may have failed on that front.

“I’m lost now,” Mansour said. “No, I believe it’s a sphere.”

“Yeah I obviously believe it’s like a sphere,” Burton somehow paradoxically agreed, before being cut off by Mansour, who tried to set the record straight.

“See, this is what I don’t understand, right, when people say the Earth is flat … I don’t even know where to go with this, I’m so lost,” Mansour said before trailing off.

“Anyway, I believe the world is a sphere, I don’t believe it’s flat. I believe everyone’s that got the right to think and believe whatever they choose, but I think it comes down to a bit of conspiracy theories.

“It’s (going) down a rabbit hole and I say to myself, ‘Why would, I guess, the government or higher beings or forces want us to believe that the Earth is round?’ Doesn’t make sense to me.”

Burton was just as lost at the end of the conversation as he was at the start.

“Yeah, I don’t get it,” he said.

“But yeah, no, it’s a mad question. I don’t know. When I look at it, it’s obviously round, but then I sort of do believe that it’s flat in some way.”

Mansour still wasn’t sure if Burton could hear what was coming out of his own mouth.

“If it’s flat, it can’t be, it can’t be a sphere. If it’s flat, it’s gotta be like a square sort of thing,” Mansour tried to explain.

“I don’t know man, I don’t know.”