NFL Chief Roger Goodell’s Wife Used Secret Twitter Account to Defend Him: Report

Roger Goodell. Rob Carr/Getty Images

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has a secret defender on Twitter: his wife.

Jane Skinner Goodell, his wife of 20 years, used a secret Twitter account to defend her husband from criticism, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. She’s used the handle “@forargument” and had the false name “Jones smith,” which featured no followers and no profile picture, the Journal reported.

The account remained dormant in 2014, but it has criticized sports reporters over their coverage of the embattled commissioner in recent weeks, the Journal reported.

It has since been deleted.

“Why is everyone so immature? (including you?),” Skinner tweeted at a Wall Street Journal reporter earlier this year.

“Goodell courageous & was right in the end. Leadership is hard. Commish is doing same. Give him credit,” she tweeted after an NBC News report was posted on the social media website.

“Please do better reporting,” his wife, a former anchor for Fox News before her retirement in 2011, tweeted last month, ESPN reported. “He is already doing this. You are behind.”

Skinner confirmed the account was hers to the Journal.

“It was a REALLY silly thing to do and done out of frustration—and love,” Skinner said. “As a former media member, I’m always bothered when the coverage doesn’t provide a complete and accurate picture of a story. I’m also a wife and a mom. I have always passionately defended the hard-working guy I love—and I always will. I just may not use Twitter to do so in the future!”

The account’s 14 tweets were only written in defense of Goodell, mainly directed at the media.

On Wednesday, Goodell said there will be no policy change regarding players standing for the national anthem.

“What we’ve had is unprecedented dialogue over the last year with our players, our owners, with community leaders and law enforcement,” Goodell told NFL.com. “What we plan to do is have a very in-depth discussion with the players and owners next week to make sure we truly understand the issues and also understand the approach we want to take together with the players to address these issues in our communities.”

Members of the Detroit Lions take a knee during the playing of the national anthem prior to the start of the game against the Atlanta Falcons at Ford Field on September 24, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. Rey Del Rio/Getty Images

The statement came after he wrote a letter to all 32 teams that the NFL has a plan to “move past” the national anthem controversy and could implement it next week, according to ESPN. He didn’t go into details.

A spokesperson for the NFL told the website that “commentary this morning about the Commissioner’s position on the Anthem is not accurate. The NFL is doing the hard work of trying to move from protest to progress, working to bring people together.”

The league will likely make a decision on the issue during meetings on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18.