Twitter Verified a Brett Favre Account That Was Either Fake or Got Hacked

Last week a new Brett Favre twitter account was created and everyone thought it was really The Old Gunslinger. Sports Illustrated, The Chicago Tribune and The A/V Club (along with most of the blogosphere) were among those who reported @brettfavre4 as “Brett Favre finally joining Twitter.” The page was recently verified by Twitter and given the prestigious blue check mark. Which may or may not have been a mistake.

@BrettFavre4 pointed to @Brett4Official as the real Favre Twitter and apologized to anyone he “offended.” Of course, there’s nothing besides 41,000 followers to indicate that the second account is any more “real” than the first one. So one that could be real. Or it could be another cunning hoax. OR … It really was Brett Favre’s official Twitter account and it was recently hacked.

Someone from Favre’s official website sent a press release to ESPN Wisconsin (Who knew that was a thing?) saying that Favre had lost control of the account on Monday.

"Please accept our sincere apologies regarding the information that we passed along regarding Brett’s new Twitter account last Friday, March 2nd.  Since Monday, March 5th an unknown party has taken over Brettfavre4 and has been tweeting without authorization. At this time neither Mr. Favre or ourselves have any idea who is tweeting for him on his account.  It is most certainly NOT him or anyone he is associated with.  From Friday evening until Sunday night last weekend this account was the actual Brett Favre Twitter page, and was the actual Brett Favre, himself tweeting.  The last REAL tweet from Brett was to Russell Wilson Sunday evening.  Anything after this was an imposter that somehow gained access to his account and began posting bogus tweets.  Once again we apologize, and if any news comes up surrounding this disaster we will inform you all immediately."

Can’t he just reset his password? Good lord. This post is obviously my penance for the Manning Heading To Philadelphia post from earlier today. When I started this three hours ago it was simply “Twitter verified a fake Favre account.” Now I’m not even sure if Brett Favre actually played football or if he was just a hoax perpetrated on the American public by Peter King, Paul Tagliabue the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Did you hear they have ESPN there now?)

*deep breath*

Real, fake or hacked, does any of this really matter? Why would you hack Brett Favre’s twitter so you can say he’s mowing his lawn? If this was “parody” it’s the latest in a long line of fake accounts that leave me scratching my head because they aren’t funny. What do you get out of leading people to believe a celebrity had an unusually delicious breakfast or enjoys relaxing on his lawnmower? And why do so many people follow dull people? This should serve as a reminder that the Internet is a big, scary place fill with dumb, boring people and you shouldn’t follow Brett Favre, real or imagined.

Previously: Fake Brett Favre Fooling People Around Green Bay
Previously: A List of 94 Twitter Things