The wife of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell played some defense for him recently by using an anonymous Twitter account to respond to his critics on social media, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Jane Skinner Goodell, a former reporter for WCSH-TV in Portland, admitted to using a Twitter account under the pseudonym “Jones smith,” with the handle @forargument, the Journal reported.

That account was deactivated Thursday, but not before responding to journalists who posted less-than-positive tweets about the commissioner over the past few months, Des Bieler wrote in his “Early Lead” blog in The Washington Post.

The Goodells have a home at Prouts Neck in Scarborough.

The Journal reported multiple instances of Skinner Goodell defending her husband on Twitter. Bieler cited one, after Pro Football Talk tweeted Sept. 26 that it was “on the commissioner” to resolve the issue of player protests during the national anthem. The reply from @forargument: “Please do better reporting. He is already doing this. You are behind.”

“It was a REALLY silly thing to do and done out of frustration – and love,” Skinner Goodell said Thursday in a statement to the Journal. “As a former media member, I’m always bothered when the coverage doesn’t provide a complete and accurate picture of a story.

“I have always passionately defended the hard-working guy I love – and I always will,” she said. “I just may not use Twitter to do so in the future!”


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