Pope Francis inadvertently showed some love to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday when he sent out a tweet that automatically added their fleur-de-lis logo.
The pope, who has more than 18 million followers on Twitter, was actually tweeting a message about five new saints who were canonized Sunday morning. But since he used a hashtag before the word Saints, Twitter automatically added the logo as part of the NFL's partnership with the social media service.
Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new #Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) October 13, 2019
Naturally, the pope's message was flooded with responses, including one from injured Saints linebacker Alex Anzalone.
All 32 NFL teams have a designated expression that automatically triggers their logo emoji when used with a hashtag on Twitter. The Saints just happen to share theirs with canonized figures.
It might not have been divinely inspired, but the Saints did hang on for a 13-6 win over the Jaguars on Sunday, prompting the team to offer up a humorous response on Twitter:
Couldn't lose after this.#Blessed and highly favored 🙌⚜️ https://t.co/2BoE2oYGqF
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 13, 2019