New England Patriots apologise after posting tweet with racial slur on the back of a shirt to celebrate 1 million Twitter followers

The Patriots used '#1millionPatriots' to celebrate their Twitter feat but were quickly criticised after creating a digital shirt for a racially offensive Twitter handle

Jack de Menezes
Friday 14 November 2014 09:54 GMT
Comments
The New England Patriots sent out this tweet which mentions a user named @IHATEN****RSS before later deleting it
The New England Patriots sent out this tweet which mentions a user named @IHATEN****RSS before later deleting it (Twitter/@Patriots)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The New England Patriots have apologised after a gesture on Twitter to celebrate their 1,000,000th follower saw the NFL franchise create a shirt for a user with the Twitter handle ‘@IHATEN****RSS’.

The Patriots announced earlier in the day that they would create a custom digital shirt for whoever helped them to pass the 1 million followers barrier, and asked fans to retweet the post in order to have their name printed on the back of a digital jersey.

They included the message: “Thanks Patriots Nation! #1millionPatriots. Thanks for making the @Patriots the 1st NFL team with 1 million Twitter followers.”

However, the joy soon turned into disaster when the account posted one shirt that caught the attention of Twitter users worldwide, as the Twitter handle was made up of an obvious racial slur.

The account tweeted: @IHATEN****RSS Thanks for helping us become the first NFL team with 1 million followers #1millionPatriots.”

The Patriots soon deleted the post and issued an immediate apology, which read: “We apologize [sic] for the regrettable tweet that went out from our account. Our filtering system failed & we will be more vigilant in the future.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in