At approximately 11am EST yesterday I saw a tweet randomly appear on my TL from someone claiming to be from Redskins GM Scot Mccloughan wife’s Jessica. I read the tweet directed to ESPN’s Dianna Russini and dismissed it thinking there is no way that could be a real account.
I proceeded to go about my day when around 2pm EST, I saw the tweet float on my TL again and this time I decided because of the Twitter chatter I should check into a little further.
The first thing I did was back source the people who were tweeting the photo of the tweet. It is then I saw that Mrs. MccLoughan’s son had tweeted her when she wished him a happy birthday back in March. At that point I got the feeling this might be a real account and started digging deeper.
The next thing I did was go to the actual page, which I saw was private. So at that point I did an @ search on Twitter of her name. I once again saw the tweet from her son, but also the wife of a Redskins staff member, along with other Redskins related tweets that didn’t look like a fake or parody account.
I look over a few accounts that had tweeted Mrs. MccLoughan in the past and they all spoke to her as if she was indeed the wife of Mr. McCloughan.
As I was collecting the tweets the Mrs. McCloughan account mysteriously was deleted. At this point, no one had posted a story and there was just random Twitter chatter. It only strengthen my belief it was a real account.
I contacted two sources close to the Redskins one via Twitter DM and one via phone and they both confirmed to me independently that it was indeed Mrs. MccLoughan twitter account.
Feeling I had enough evidence to proceed, I posted my story at 3:54PM EST.
Redskins GM’s Wife Tweets ESPN Reporter Used Oral Sex to Get Scoops
Shortly afterwards I was provided with another older tweet from Mrs. MccLoughan calling Ms. Russini her husband’s sidechick.
Since the page had been deleted, I decided to see if I could pull a cache page of her Twitter account from Google when it was unlock (click here to see what I found). It was mostly retweets of the main Redskins account and stories on her husband, but a couple of interesting nuggets starting with her Twitter ID.
We have confirmed that the Twitter bio was indeed about Russini.
At 5:04pm EST I received an email from Redskins VP of Communications Tony Wyllie asking me to call him.
I called him immediately and he issued a strong denial, how strong?
Initially I wrote that the Redskins “believed” the twitter account was fake (I was trying to give them some wiggle room), Mr. Wyllie called me back to say that was incorrect, the Redskins “KNEW” the account was fake (they didn’t want the wiggle room).
I updated my story saying that Redskins 100% believe the account was fake and they were getting NFL security involved. Never at one time did I waver in my belief the account was real.
At around 5:50pm I was asked by Fox 5 DC to tape a segment at 7pm speaking on my story and the Redskins denial.
At 7pm I taped the segment standing by story and belief that the twitter account was Mrs. McCloughan.
8:14pm I was snapchatting some random thoughts about the Floyd Mayweather media call I had been on (username robertlittal if you want to watch) when I received a text followed by a call from Mr. Wyllie saying Mrs. McCloughan had confessed and released a statement admitting what she had done.
“I deeply apologize for the disparaging remarks about an ESPN reporter on my personal Twitter account. The comment was unfounded and inappropriate, and I have the utmost respect for both the reporter and ESPN. I regret that my actions have brought undeserved negative attention to the Redskins organization and its leadership. My comments in no way reflect the opinions or attitudes of the organization and I regret that my behavior has in any way negatively impacted the team and its loyal fan base.” – Jessica McCloughan
So what happened between 5:04pm and 8:14pm. How did the Redskins go from strongly telling me and everyone else the account 100% fake to her confessing?
Let me tell you.
First, I do believe the Redskins thought the account was fake. Maybe because BSO was the source and not ESPN or PFT, they figured it was more likely I didn’t put in the work and they just took Mrs. McCloughan at her word when who she denied it was her account. Mr. Wyllie told me on the record that Mrs. McCloughan denied it was her account and that is why they released the statement saying it was a fake.
But once the Redskins denied it and in turn made it national news, media organizations way bigger than me started snooping around. NFL security started snooping around. Everyone started snooping around.
Three separate sources told BSO that an IP trace was put on the account and I think you can guess where the trace led back to (when accounts are deleted on Twitter, they can still be traced).
Mrs. McCloughan at that point was caught red-handed and had no choice but to confess.
Someone was going to break the story, so Redskins were proactive in getting Mrs. McCloughan statement out there before that IP trace was leaked, because we know someone was going to leak it.
It was a very carefully worded statement that never mentions Russini by name. There are some other things going on here, but you sort of have to read between the lines and don’t be shocked if more comes of it at a later date.
So, what is the lesson here?
No matter if your account is private or you delete whatever you are talking about, someone, somewhere will find it.
Don’t be the next contestant on that Summer Jam screen.