ESPN falls for fake Olivier Vernon report
ESPN's Trey Wingo and Adam Schefter reported Wednesday that defensive end Olivier Vernon would sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars for $75.5 million over four years.
CHAPS CHAPS CHAPS CHAPS CHAPS @UncleChaps pic.twitter.com/rBAkPYtEuc
— Mike Tunison (@xmasape) March 9, 2016
Moments later, ESPN retracted the report, noting that it came from bad information.
In fact, it came from Twitter user "Uncle Chaps," notorious NFL prankster. Chaps has a habit of changing his Twitter profile to resemble a prominent news breaker's and then tweeting out fake news that sounds plausible.
This time, Chaps altered his avatar and Twitter bio to match FOX Sports' Jay Glazer's and tweeted out a fake report about Vernon. Many people fell for it, which led to snowballing retweets and the erroneous report somehow ending up on ESPN.
This, obviously, thrilled Chaps.
Hello, @espn.
— chaps (@UncleChaps) March 9, 2016
Schefter wasn't exactly pleased to have to issue this retraction:
.@unclechaps is on the board pic.twitter.com/WvP6XGhZhf
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) March 9, 2016