Who Are The People That Roger Goodell Follows On Twitter?
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- On Tuesday morning Roger Goodell -- everybody's favorite commissioner, good ol' Rog himself -- surprised everybody by sending out a tweet from his official account for the first time since Sept. 5 of 2014.
The reason for the 569-day hiatus between tweets remain unknown (it may have something to do with Goodell being caught up in a Ray Rice scandal around the time of the September 2014 tweet, but really, who knows?!), but that's neither here nor there. The commish is back! Get ready for some great tweets!
While Goodell's return to the world of Twitter means different things to different people, for me it made me curious. Who exactly is this guy following?
For a man with 485,000 followers, Goodell doesn't follow too many people himself. He follows 228 people on Twitter, so scrolling to the bottom of that list was quite the breeze.
Once there, the list of the first six people he followed was not at all surprising.
Among the first follows from the commish are the league itself, league PR man Greg Aiello, and then three friends in the media -- ESPN's Chris Mortensen, ESPN's Mike & Mike Show, and Sports Illustrated's Peter King. While we're all rooting for Mort in his fight against cancer, he was of course the recipient of some bogus information in January 2015 which came from somewhere in the league office, and the fact that he's among Goodell's very first follows helps push that fact further. And whenever Goodell finds himself facing criticism, Mike & Mike and Peter King have always been friendly landing spots for him to state his talking points without ever really being challenged. Good friends, all.
But there is a mystery here: the first person Goodell followed is a man named Craig Ellenport, who used to write for NFL.com (he's got three tagged posts total on NFL.com) and whose current Twitter bio lists him as a "veteran sports journalist." He currently shoots out tweets like this one:
He also once posted this vicious slam of Goodell in 2013:
Whoa! Ellenport breathing the hot fire!
Scrolling up through the list of follows, you'll see a number of expected folks. There are lots of players, media members and NFL staffers. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is pretty high on the list, as is the #AllProDad himself, Tony Dungy. Then, there are more players, both current and retired, as well as a number of NFL reporters.
It's not until follows No. 45 and 47 that Goodell gets to the big dogs of NFL reporting, Jason La Canfora and Adam Schefter. But shortly after that, things get kind of weird.
Goodell, likely in a move to appear to just be your average Joe football fan, started to follow a ton of fans.
The first fan he followed is someone named "Steelergurl," who describes herself as "a girl who loves football, smashmouth Steelers football." Her bio would be better if she liked Smash Mouth the band more than smash mouth football, so that's kind of a major letdown.
But @Steelergurl is hardly the only fan he follows. He's following @lisahayes4, who includes this in her bio: "Yes, The NFLCommish answered my tweet &sat w/me@ a Titans '09 game."
That's not something I'd necessarily brag about, Lisa, but at least the follow makes sense.
He's one of 116 people to follow @laurapickart, and he's one of 68 folks to follow @sroe71. Hopefully Rog didn't see this one!
He follows someone named "DaRreLL," and he went on a big Pennsylvania kick at one point, following a number Philly and Pittsburgh fans. One of those is "JoeSteelerFan," who seems to not enjoy the commissioner very much:
But Joe -- he follows you on Twitter! He cares!
These are just a few of the dozens of fans he follows, which really strikes me as a Steve Buscemi-on-30 Rock type of effort to fit in with the common fan.
"How do you do, fellow sports fans? Do you like the sports action like I do? The only thing that could enhance this experience would be a plate of wings and an ice-cold light beer, yes?"
He also follows some people he's suspended, like Michael Vick and Adrian Peterson, and he follows an owner he punished -- Jim Irsay -- too.
Goodell does follow the Concussion Legacy Foundation, perhaps to keep up on the scientific discoveries he'll have to dispute in the future.
Goodell follows New York Post reporter Bart Hubbuch, a man who seems to immensely enjoy getting in spirited fights online with Patriots fans -- or, as Goodell might put it, "doing the commissioner's dirty work."
Among NFL teams, Goodell follows the Bears, the Steelers, and ... that's it. Follow your teams, Roger.
Two of the most intriguing follows are someone named "Hammar" and another person named Patrick, who has the uber-creative handle of @patrick19602005. Unfortunately, @mrhammar's tweets are private, so we'll never solve that mystery, aside from knowing that he ends his bio with "Boomshakalaka." Patrick, meanwhile, seems to express opinions online quite freely.
It's like the old saying goes: Don't step in the kitchen if you can't handle patrick19602005's hot takes. And Goodell, clearly, has no problem handling them.
Goodell follows the COO of Thermos, which seems like a cool job. Who doesn't love some nice, warm soup? (This has nothing to do with Goodell, really. Just wanted to promote the warmth of soup.)
There is a binge of fan follows, which includes a Patriots fan (@gregolson23) whose photo is the Tom Brady protest photo from the DeflateGate saga. Maybe Goodell thought this was either tight end Greg Olsen or Jaguars offensive coordinator Greg Olson. Whoops!
For whatever reason, Goodell decided to follow a ton of players drafted in the 2014 draft -- Jadeveon Clowney, Johnny Manziel, Marqise Lee, Sammy Watkins, Blake Bortles, Eric Ebron, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jake Matthews, Brandin Cooks, Khalil Mack, Teddy Bridgewater, Ryan Shazier, Jordan Matthews, Ra'Shede Hageman, Greg Robinson, Cody Latimer, Odell Beckham Jr., Mike Evans, Kyle Fuller, Cyrus Kouandjio, Bradley Roby, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Taylor Lewan and Michael Sam. Must have been a 2014 initiative to follow a somewhat random collection of drafted players.
Goodell also follows Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, who's one of the commissioner's loudest critics among active players.
And capping off the list are the two mysteries of the whole endeavor: @sam1216 and @Fam1216Finn1216. These two accounts have no name attached, and no photos. They're Twitter eggs. Sam has five followers; Fam has 25. Sam has never tweeted and follows only one person: John Legend. Meanwhile, Fam brings the heat:
These are, apparently, the tweets to which Roger finds himself drawn these days.
So welcome back, Roger. We all hope you enjoy those kickball updates.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
