“Moss vikings” – how to break news in twelve characters, by accident

It’s Tuesday night, not even 24 hours after the New England Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football in week 4 of the NFL (a superb defensive and special teams effort culminated in Patriots QB Tom Brady’s 100th career win). Bill Simmons (ESPN writer; twitter: @sportsguy33) accidentally tweets “Moss vikings”, minutes later deleting the tweet and asserting that it was intended as a direct message. This is the new sports media.

Inadvertently breaking the news, Simmons sparked a blaze of stories regarding trade talk of Patriots WR Randy Moss to the Minnesota Vikings. Quickly it went from a deleted tweet to the online presences of ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, USA Today, the Boston Herald, the NFL and various other media outlets. Not only is this a sign of the times, but also a display of the direction in which the sports media juggernaut is heading.