NFL Schedule Leaks was just another troll job

Legends aren’t born, they’re made. The Twitter account @NFLGameLeaks is no different.

NFL Schedule Leaks published its first tweet on May 9, writing, “Hello Twitter; The NFL Schedule it [sic] set to officially release on Thursday, May 12. The schedules, however, have already been sent to all 32 NFL teams. Games will continuously leak as the days progress. I will tweet out all games as I get them.”

This was a lie. There was no secret access to a previously released schedule, no leak with any factual information whatsoever. But who could have known? The account quickly amassed 10,000 followers over the next three days, tweeting out completely fabricated matchups. Blogs, sportswriters, and message boards were eating it up, retweeting and reporting apparently leaked game schedules based on the Game Leaks Twitter account.

And the person behind it all was literally just making it up — which they revealed yesterday and promptly lost about 20 percent of their followers. See for yourself:

This was followed up with “literally none of that shit was real.” Just incredible stuff here, to be honest. The account then turned into a sort of manifesto about how easily misinformation spreads on the Internet (“no wonder half this country thinks the election was rigged good fucking lord”), and shouted out the single account who had called them out from the start for being fake.

Having now promised “much more bamboozling and tomfoolery to come,” what could be fake-leaked next? Trades and free-agent destinations? NBA draft picks in June? College football home-and-home series announcements for the 2042 season? The opportunities are endless, and the precedent is set. It’s just a question of whether people will fall for it so easily a second time. (My guess? They will.)

The bio on the account now reads “I really got y’all motherfuckers.” Can’t argue with that.