While the Deflategate court battle is still playing out, the NFL lost a battle on another front Tuesday; control of their social media. The league’s @NFL Twitter account was hacked, and sent out a somewhat convincing-looking tweet stating that commissioner Roger Goodell had died. The league appeared to regain control of its account pretty quickly and delete the rogue tweet, but not before it picked up plenty of likes and retweets:
This just got deleted. Somebody hacked the NFL account? pic.twitter.com/yuONIvG85E
— SB Nation (@SBNation) June 7, 2016
The subsequent tweets from the hacker were a little less formal:
Meanwhile, ESPN’s Adam Schefter confirmed that this was a hack and Goodell is not actually dead:
NFL's Twitter account was hacked. Roger Goodell is working away.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 7, 2016
Well, that let the air out of that rumor pretty quickly. How deflating.
Update: Goodell has responded!
Man, you leave the office for 1 day of golf w/ @JimKelly1212 & your own network kills you off. #harsh pic.twitter.com/BvtBVzdYTc
— Roger Goodell (@nflcommish) June 7, 2016