For the space of five minutes Tuesday, football fans across the internet stared at news that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had died, as announced by the league's Twitter page. The story came up, a morbid piece next to reports of a fan making an obscene gesture while posing with the commissioner. More than 1,700 people retweeted the news.
And then, in a flash, the tweet was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. The news was not true.
The NFL Twitter page, it turned out, had been hacked.
Brian McCarthy, vice president of communications for the NFL, confirmed in a tweet that the league's page was hacked and said Goodell is "alive and well."
"Oi, I said Roger Goodell has died," read a tweet that appeared on the NFL page shortly after news of Goodell's demise disappeared. "Don't delete that tweet."
"Ok, Ok, you amateur detectives win. Good job," another tweet posted a minute later said.
Both tweets have since been deleted.
Still, the news made its mark and many took the opportunity to poke fun at the situation.
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