False Alarm: Roger Goodell Laughs Off His 'Death'

The football world got quite a shock Tuesday, but the nation's surprise was short-lived.

At 12:36 P.M. ET, the NFL's Twitter account released this tweet, announcing that 57-year-old NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had passed away:

With such a prominent national figure apparently biting the dust, the public reaction was understandably massive, but only ten minutes later, NFL vice president of communications Brian McCarthy put the rumors to rest:

Consequently, the NFL promptly deleted the prank Tweet announcing Goodell's "death," but the hacker's fun wasn't done quite yet. Making the absolute most of his time on the account, the anonymous hacker proceeded to put out a pair of humorous Tweets poking fun at the NFL's response – Tweets that also have since been deleted, but are available via this Deadspin article.

According to the same Deadspin piece, the hacker was likely to be the user of the Twitter account @IDissEverything, considering that the account had asked the Internet for a "much-loved football player people would be sad to see go" earlier on Tuesday and that it's the only account the NFL has followed since the original fake Tweet was posted.

Eventually, news of the hoax made its way to Goodell himself – and the commissioner took it in stride, posting this humorous take on the situation that has since been retweeted by the NFL's account:

A job well done by the commish, who seems to have enjoyed the brief distraction from the chaotic nature of running the nation's most popular major sport.

This fall, Goodell will begin his 11th season as commissioner. It officially kicks off when the Packers and Colts face off in the annual "Hall of Fame" preseason game August 7.

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