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The ravenous desire for NFL news reached its zenith on Wednesday with the opening of free agency for 2016. Thousands of people endlessly refreshed the Twitter feeds of ESPN's Adam Schefter or FOX Sports' Jay Glazer -- but in the end it was a lone man named Uncle Chaps who fooled the NFL world.
Chaps is a hero to half of NFL Twitter, a villain to others. He tirelessly assumes the identity of various NFL insiders, changing his photo to that of a recognized name and duping fans of teams into believing their favorite players have been cut, or unlikely superstars are arriving. He was previously part of a ludicrous Andre Johnson/ Brian Hoyer trade rumor, and we like Chaps' work so much we believed he should be the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. On Wednesday afternoon Chaps was being Chaps.
#Dolphins DE Oliver Vernon headed north to Jacksonville for 4yrs 75.5 mil.
— chaps (@UncleChaps) March 9, 2016
This was originally tweeted with Glazer's photo, and his name. Then something happened. There was a complete breakdown somewhere in the telephone game of NFL news and suddenly ESPN had a ticker of, you guessed it, Oliver Vernon agreeing to a 4 year, $75.5 million deal with the Jaguars. They attributed the report to Glazer.
They realized their mistake far too late.
ESPN duped by Ole Chaps. RT @KennyDucey: .@unclechaps is on the board pic.twitter.com/Rt8l8Fg8cH
— Andy Dufresne (@theunzippedfly) March 9, 2016
Glazer, who is routinely upset at ESPN's lack of attribution to his breaking news, took it all in stride.
Damn I finally get credit from ESPN and it's not even from my real account??? Damn, so close. I kid... but only bc it's funny
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) March 9, 2016
We reached out to Uncle Chaps and he has issued the following heartfelt statement.
Disclaimer: Uncle Chaps has previously been a staff writer and contributor on "Big Cat Country," SB Nation's Jacksonville Jaguars blog.