On Wednesday morning the internet was hit with an elaborate, carefully orchestrated plot that said Washington’s NFL team was going to change its name to the “Washington Redhawks” for the 2018 season.
No, Washington’s NFL team didn’t change its name. Here’s the elaborate scheme that made it seem that way.
This stunt was so convincing the team had to deny it
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
These kind of fake stories are common on Twitter, traditionally spurred by misrepresenting a verified user, but the Redhawks plot had the distinction of seemingly being reported by ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, and The Washington Post all at the same time.
Somehow news of the team changing its name hit everywhere, at the same time, simultaneously, without being leaked out ahead of the announcement. The news sent up dozens of red flags, and yet everything looked pretty convincing.
That is, until you double-checked the URLs you were visiting. The stories appeared on forgeries of each of the sites. Versions that were intentionally scraped for content, so all the surrounding links appeared real and legitimate, even duplicating “most read,” or “breaking news” sidebars, populated with links that directly related to the sports world on Wednesday morning. However, when you checked your address bar you noticed what was happening.
ESPN was: espnsports.news
Sports Illustrated was: sportsillustrated.news
Bleacher Report was: bleacherreport.news
Washington Post was: washpostsports.com
All four sites were registered on Nov. 26, with the flagship site “washingtoredhawks.com,” registered on Nov. 10. They were purchased under the name “Dan S,” through the French URL purchasing site gandi.net, but with any further personal information masked through the site, making identifying the buyer almost impossible.
This kind of scheme isn’t necessarily expensive, with each URL likely only costing between $10-15 for a year-long license, but the coding of the sites, the artwork, and small details were convincing enough to fool the biggest doubter, if only for a second. All this took a significant amount of time.
The photoshop, according to the site fotoforensics.com, was created on an Apple iMac in early October — lending credence to the idea that the plot was months in the making.
Eventually the team was forced to release a statement over the confusion.
It wasn’t long after this that the group behind the action came forward. Native advocates said they wanted to raise awareness of how easy it would be to change four letters in the team name and immediately have a positive impact.
“We are sorry for the disappointment and confusion many will feel learning that Snyder had not changed the name yet. The purpose of this action is to show that the need for a new mascot is real and immediate. This online campaign is one of many direct and confrontational tactics that we as Native people have to use to demand our human dignity.”
The group is holding a rally outside RFK Stadium in Washington, DC on Thursday afternoon and invite people to attend.
