Six days after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII, the New England Patriots fell victim to a classic online prank.
For several hours Saturday, a keyword Google search for “New England Patriots owner” or “Patriots owner” auto-generated Foles as the answer atop the list of results. Actual Patriots owner Robert Kraft must have been none too pleased.
👀 If You Google New England Patriots Owner...
— Jeff Skversky 6abc (@JeffSkversky) February 10, 2018
✅ Nick Foles Comes Up as Owner!!!! Haha
🏆 Foles accounted for 4 TDs and OWNED Patriots in Super Bowl LII to Win MVP! pic.twitter.com/Cpg1Ot73I0
A Google spokesperson attributed the comedic glitch, which had been fixed as of Sunday, to an edit made on Wikipedia, the crowd-sourced — and notoriously prank-able — online encyclopedia.
“This was caused by a change on Wikipedia that was briefly reflected in our results,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “It’s been fixed on Wikipedia, and we have fixed it on our end as well.”
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In fairness, Foles did in a sense at least own the Patriots defense for a few hours last Sunday, having passed for 373 yards and three touchdowns in the Eagles’ Super Bowl win.
Nik DeCosta-Klipa can be reached at n.decosta-klipa@boston.com. Follow him on Twitter @NikDeCosta-Klipa