One of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s biggest supporters on Twitter was @forargument, which was under the name “Jones smith” and had no followers. It turns out that Jones smith was an account run by his wife, Jane Skinner Goodell.
When The Wall Street Journal began asking questions about the account, Jane Skinner Goodell admitted in a written statement to the newspaper that she was behind it.
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“It was a REALLY silly thing to do and done out of frustration — and love,” Jane Skinner Goodell wrote. “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!”
An hour after The Journal asked about the account, it was made private. It has since been taken down completely.
“Sounds like what she did is what every spouse in America would want to do,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Journal.
Although the account no longer exists, screenshots certainly do since nothing is every completely lost online. Remnants of conversations she had with journalists, in which she told them to correct stories about her husband, still exist. For example, former New York Magazine journalist Gabriel Sherman wrote to her in 2015, “I always strive for on the record sources but reporting on a powerful institution like NFL means only some speak anonymously.”
@forargument I always strive for on the record sources but reporting on a powerful institution like NFL means only some speak anonymously
— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) January 28, 2015
Here are some other examples.
@Blakestokoe @forargument I wasn’t a journalism student, but standard practice is to issue correction, which we did: pic.twitter.com/9ykhRtpiGg
— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) January 26, 2015
@forargument thank you so much!
— Javier Muñoz (@JMunozActor) October 12, 2015
The revelation that Skinner, a former Fox News Channel anchor, ran an anonymous Twitter account to defend her husband comes during a difficult time for the NFL and Goodell. The league has been under constant criticism from President Donald Trump and his administration for allowing players to kneel during the National Anthem to protest racial injustice. The NFL’s TV ratings have also been declining and the league is in a court battle with star Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott.
The Journal noted that @forargument would comment on any issue related to Goodell and the NFL, and always in defense of her husband. But these tweets would rarely get likes, retweets or responses from whoever Jane Skinner Goodell was responding to. She even criticized DrMaurice Smith, the head of the NFL Players Association, in one message to an ESPN reporter.
“Reads like press release from players’ union. You can do better reporting. (D Smith sounds like D Trump with the inaccurate firebombs),” she wrote.
When Journal columnist Jason Gay tweeted a photo of Goodell with Patriots fans in August, he wrote, “Roger Goodell with three guys who will be disowned by their families tomorrow.”
“Why is everyone so immature? (including you?),” @forargument snapped back.
Her last tweet before the Journal uncovered the truth about @forargument was a response to historian Michael Beschloss’ tweet with a 1970 headline, “Agnew Continues Attack on GOP Senator Goodell.” Goodell’s father is the late New York Senator Charles Goodell.
“Goodell courageous & was right in the end,” @forargument wrote. “Leadership is hard. Commish is doing same. Give him credit.”
