The New England Patriots on Thursday night apologized for a racially offensive message posted to their Twitter account.
As part of a promotion to celebrate reaching 1 million followers, the Patriots' official Twitter account sent individualized messages to fans who retweeted a message the Patriots sent. The messages the Patriots sent back to those fans included images of individualized jerseys with the users' Twitter handles superimposed on the back.
We're saying thanks to @patriots' 1million followers w/ custom digital Pats jerseys - RT for yours! #1MillionPatriots pic.twitter.com/u2SfidCb9e
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 13, 2014One of those Twitter handles was "IHATEN-------" and the team tweeted an image of a Patriots jersey with the name on the back. The tweet went viral and soon after the team issued an apology via Twitter.
We apologize for the regrettable tweet that went out from our account. Our filtering system failed & we will be more vigilant in the future.
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 14, 2014