Free agency hadn't even officially started, and the fake reports were flying.
ESPN even got duped by a big one on Twitter.
During its NFL Live show, the network discussed a signing that did not happen: Olivier Vernon to the Jacksonville Jaguars for major money.
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Host Trey Wingo and analysts Adam Schefter, Herman Edwards, Tim Hasselbeck and Tedy Bruschi even spent several minutes discussing the deal, which might have been seen by a producer by someone posing on Twitter as Fox's Jay Glazer. (The original report even misspelled Vernon's first name as "Oliver," which was a nice touch.
Then ESPN realized it's mistake. And it was left to intrepid reporter Schefter to clean up the mess.
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“Sometimes people get duped by fake accounts,” Schefter said, “and there are people here who got duped by a fake account. There’s no deal with Jacksonville right now. It's still happening, unfolding as we speak. ...
"We apologize for that mistake. We’ll keep you posted when Olivier Vernon does sign a deal.”
Ouch. It happens, and in the flurry of the Twitter-fueled news cycle, it could happen to any news organization. And Vernon still could sign with the Jaguars. But it hadn't happening yet at the time.
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