NEW YORK — Jazz Chisholm Jr. couldn’t help but laugh. Two days before, videos of him had gone viral on social media, with many users questioning if he was wearing an AirPod while playing second base against the Texas Rangers. It got to the point where he had felt he had to address the situation, posting a selfie on Instagram with what it really was — a wad of cotton stuffed into his ear canal.

The cotton was there because he was actually playing hurt after taking a grounder to the head in the ninth inning of Monday’s win in Texas, Chisholm told The Athletic on Friday.

“It gave me an earache for like three or four days,” he said.

Chisholm added that he could “barely hear anything out of my right ear” in the days that followed. He wore actual AirPods in the Yankees’ clubhouse on Friday afternoon and kept them on noise cancellation mode without any music playing — an attempt to muffle the noise around him, he said.

‘Right now,” he said, “I’m feeling better. … My right ear was ringing for like three days.”

is that an airpod or like pitchcom pic.twitter.com/0PJMtgmDBH

— ben rice truther (@ursocuylle) April 29, 2026

Chisholm said the ear issue didn’t affect his balance or any portion of his game. He didn’t miss any games in Texas, and he started Friday night.

“I feel like I was still hitting the ball super hard,” he said. “I was crushing the ball.”

Chisholm suffered the injury when Josh Smith smoked a ground ball to his left side with a runner on second base and Yankees closer David Bednar trying to hold onto a 4-1 lead.

When Chisholm tried stopping the ball, it kicked off his glove and hit him in the head. Smith was safe, but the Yankees went on to win, 4-2.

Chisholm couldn’t believe the commotion it caused, so he addressed it himself on Thursday.

So apparently Jazz Chisolm just had a cotton ball in his ear and not an AirPod? People were ready to pounce at the Yankees with no evidence lmao pic.twitter.com/ZKgiZ85EwL

— LombardIsKing (@LombardIsKing_) April 30, 2026

One video with a caption that said, “is that an airpod or like pitchcom” racked up 381,000 views. Another one with the caption, “Does Jazz Chisholm wear an AirPod in the field?” was viewed 275,000 times.

“I think that’s not smart at all,” Chisholm said of the viral videos. “I think no umpire would let it go through. No coach would let that happen. You know what I mean? I just feel like … and you would have seen a phone in my back pocket or something. I mean, AirPods don’t reach that far. So for me, it’s just like, I just didn’t think it was a smart thing. I feel like everything I do is on the media. I don’t mind it.

“If you guys love me that much, s—. I don’t mind it. I have no problem with it.”