A new report reveals that an anonymous Twitter account seen faithfully supporting NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, was secretly created and operated by his own wife.
The Twitter account, @forargument, turns out to have been created by Jane Skinner Goodell, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As Twitter criticism of the NFL commissioner mounted, the secretive account was seen constantly battling to defeat complaints about the football chief’s decisions.
The account came to Goodell’s aid on at least 14 occasions since August, the Journal said. The account was also used to criticize media coverage of Goodell’s actions.
In one case @forargument slammed Pro Football Talk warning the site to “do better reporting” and insisting that the site was “behind” the real news about the commissioner.
In another case, the account was used to slam ESPN’s Seth Wickersham by saying he was shilling for the players union. “Reads like press release from players’ union. You can do better reporting. (D Smith sounds like D Trump with the inaccurate firebombs),” the account tweeted.
The account was also seen attacking people who said Commissioner Goodell staged a photo showing him standing with three grinning New England Patriots fans after he had suspended quarterback Tom Brady because of Deflategate. The account called Commissioner Goodell’s detractors “immature.”
The Journal not only discovered that the generic Twitter account was operated by Jane Goodall but even elicited a statement from the Commissioner’s wife admitting to the whole scheme.
“It was a REALLY silly thing to do and done out of frustration — and love,” Mrs. Goodall told the paper. “As a former media member, I’m always bothered when the coverage doesn’t provide a complete and accurate picture of a story. I’m also a wife and a mom. I have always passionately defended the hard-working guy I love — and I always will. I just may not use Twitter to do so in the future!”
The Journal also claimed that Commissioner Goodell was unaware of his wife Twitter habit.
The account was deleted after the story was published, but the paper saved screenshots of them before they went down the Internet memory hole.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.