The reason professional athletes have their Instagram and Twitter accounts verified is so an average Joe can't come along, create a fake account, pose as a player and start rumours about said player's personal life. The check mark gives us a confirmation that it's the athlete themselves posting to social media.

Early Friday morning New England Patriots' quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo's Instagram account posted a goodbye message to the city of Boston, and the football world went crazy:

Embedded Image

 

The post has now been removed from his Instagram, and a source close to Garoppolo told ESPN's Mike Reiss that they believed it was a "prank" or "hoax."

 

 

Of course, the Internet had some fun with the whole situation...

 

 

Jimmy might want to get his Instagram account all sorted out before more rumours and rumblings start coming out.

(H/T ESPN)