If there was a worst possible time on the sports calendar for X to suffer an outage, it might be the start of NFL free agency.
And lo and behold, the social media platform went down on Monday morning — just hours ahead of the start of the NFL’s legal tampering period, which begins at 12 p.m. ET.
X initially went down early Monday morning, with thousands of users reporting outages just before 6 a.m. ET. While services were restored for a few hours, the site and app went back down just before 10 a.m. ET, with more than 40,000 users reporting outages according to DownDetector.com before the Elon Musk-owned platform returned approximately a half-hour later. It then suffered a third outage at approximately 11:30 a.m. ET, with the site remaining down at the start of legal tampering at 12 p.m. ET.
While NFL free agents can’t officially sign new deals until Wednesday, Monday’s legal tampering period effectively marks the start of the league’s free agency as teams and players are allowed to negotiate and agree upon new contracts. As one might expect, that makes for a hectic time on social media, with reporters routinely breaking news regarding the ongoing discussions and new deals.
In fact, even the lead up to Monday afternoon had already proven plenty chaotic. Myles Garrett rescinded his trade request to sign a contract extension with the Cleveland Browns, the Pittsburgh Steelers traded for Seattle Seahawks star wide receiver DK Metcalf, the Los Angeles Rams agreed to terms with Davante Adams (who had been released by the New York Jets and thus eligible to negotiate early) and reigning MVP Josh Allen signed a record-breaking extension with the Buffalo Bills.
And that was just Sunday. Even Monday morning saw ESPN’s Adam Schefter break the news that the Steelers are a candidate to sign quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who figures to feature prominently into Monday’s news cycle.
That will likely still be the case, although it remains to be seen whether it will be happening on X. During Monday morning’s second outage, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini and the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport took to Bluesky to promote that’s where they planned on breaking news during X’s outage, while Schefter has an active account on Threads, which largely mirrors his X account.
Well guess we will break news here today.
— Dianna Russini (@diannarussini.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Considering the timing of the three separate outages on Monday, it might be time for the NFL to reconsider its stance regarding Bluesky.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.