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Sports

Roger Goodell's Wife Has Been Anonymously Tweeting at His Haters

Roger Goodell's wife has been Kevin Duranting for her husband with a Twitter egg.
Twitter, Mark J. Rebilas—USA TODAY Sports

This would be a sweet story if it weren't about someone protecting Roger Goodell. Because lord knows he's not in the business of protecting anyone else. According to the Wall Street Journal, Goodell's wife Jane Skinner Goodell has been tweeting at her husband's haters from an anonymous account for the past few months. Meanwhile, Goodell claims he hadn't heard of the account until now.

Shortly after the WSJ reached out, the account @forargument was taken down. It had no followers, had the modern equivalent of an egg avatar, and was listed under the generic name "Jones smith." Amidst the recent controversy of the NFL—ranging from Trump fuming about players taking a knee to Goodell vaguely defending the players' civil rights, to Goodell doubling back and suggesting that players should stand—@forargument (brilliant name, btw) has tweeted 14 times since August, mostly clapping back at publications. Mrs. Goodell herself was an anchor for Fox News. Surprise.

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One of the more notable tweets was in response to an article written by ESPN about the NFL's chaotic handling of Trump's comments. In response to ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham tweeting his own article, "Jones smith" responded, "Reads like press release from players' union. You can do better reporting. (D Smith sounds like D Trump with the inaccurate firebombs)." DeMaurice Smith is head of the NFLPA.

She once tweeted in response to someone posting an old news clipping about Goodell's father, the GOP senator Charles Ellsworth Goodell, saying, "Goodell courageous & was right in the end. Leadership is hard. Commish is doing same. Give him credit." Pretty hard to tell who it is at this point.

She even tweeted at a WSJ reporter for the following tweet:

Mrs. Goodell said in the now-deleted response, "Why is everyone so immature? (Including you?) let's celebrate the new season." Ah, yes, indeed. Let's just stick to the joyful things.

After WSJ reached out to her, Mrs. Goodell had the following to say in a written statement provided to the paper Thursday afternoon:

"It was a REALLY silly thing to do and done out of frustration—and love. 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!"

Yes, it appears that Roger Goodell's wife has been Kevin Duranting for her husband with a Twitter egg. Wild times we're living in.