The National Football League’s Twitter account was hacked on Tuesday and its 19 million Twitter followers were falsely informed that commissioner Roger Goodell had died.
“We regret to inform our fans that our commissioner, Roger Goodell, has passed away. He was 57. #RIP,” the NFL’s official account tweeted at 12:36 p.m. EST on Tuesday.
League spokesman Brian McCarthy was quick to correct the record, but not before NFL fans — realizing the league was hacked — began joking about the controversial commissioner. Wikipedia editors then attributed the “death” to “deflated testicles.”
“The @nfl Twitter account was hacked. @nflcommish is alive and well,” Mr. McCarthy wrote.
Mr. Goodell’s tenure as league commissioner has been marred by various scandals, including his “Deflategate” legal battle with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Mr. Brady is fighting a four-game suspension over his alleged involvement with the deflation of footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.
The Patriots handily defeated the Colts 45-7 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The team went on to defeat the Seattle Seahawks 28-4 in Super Bowl XLIX.
“I refuse to believe Goodell is still alive until I hear him make a bad decision with my own ears,” Bleacher Report’s Michael Tanier joked Tuesday.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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