Topline
Sports bloggers and football fans who just couldn’t wait for Thursday night’s official NFL schedule release flocked by the thousands over the past three days to a Twitter account that dropped supposed “leaks” of game dates for the upcoming season, but the account’s owner on Thursday admitted all the leaks were entirely made up, and berated followers for spreading disinformation.
Justin Jefferson #18 of the Minnesota Vikings celebrates a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans … [+]
Key Facts
The unverified account, calling itself “NFL Schedule Leaks,” published information on around 100 matchups before tweeting late Thursday morning: “guess who just got 10k followers by literally making up a bunch of NFL games because I was bored and faking out almost the entire football twitter landscape?”
The account sent out its first tweet late Monday night, saying game dates, times and TV networks broadcasting the matchups “will continuously leak as the days progress” and vowing to “tweet out all games as I get them.”
Information from the account spread widely through not only blogs and message boards, but in some cases from veteran sports reporters who retweeted supposed leaks.
NFL Schedule Leaks’ owner on Thursday slammed verified users who retweeted reports from the account, before telling followers: “y’all see how f—-ing easy it is to spread misinformation on the internet?”
Crucial Quote
“no wonder half this country thinks the election was rigged good f—-ing lord,” the account tweeted Thursday.
Key Background
Along with the NFL draft and the start of free agency, the release of the next season’s NFL schedule is one of the most highly anticipated points of the league’s offseason. The full 2022 schedule will be unveiled during a three-hour programming special on the NFL Network starting at 8 p.m. Thursday, but numerous media outlets, such as local newspapers, published leaked matchups earlier in the day based on NFL team sources. The matchups the outlets reported were in almost all cases completely at odds with what the unverified Twitter account posted, quickly unraveling confidence many fans had in what turned out to be false information.
Tangent
NFL schedule makers largely reserve the most appealing matchups for fans, featuring top players and teams, for a handful of weekly primetime games. But a monkey wrench was thrown into the process when Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady retired—and then unretired—earlier this year, Howard Katz, the NFL’s senior vice president of broadcasting, told the Los Angeles Times.
Further Reading
Exclusive: Inside the NFL schedule war room — ‘making everybody equally disappointed’ (Los Angeles Times)
Tom Brady Not Retiring After All—Announces Return To Buccaneers (Forbes)
Tom Brady Officially Announces Retirement After News Leaked Days Earlier (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/05/12/nfl-fans-were-riveted-by-a-twitter-account-dropping-schedule-leaks-it-was-all-fake/