NFL Network seems to be playing clean-up this morning after broadcasting a headline that stated Saints' WR Michael Thomas wanted to be traded from the team.

This wasn't some sort of cleverly suggestive writing to juice up a story surrounding the recent drama between Michael Thomas and the Saints—it was just flat-out inaccurate. The headline appeared in a story that both aired on NFL Network and was posted on Twitter.

NFL Insider Ian Rapoport was featured in the package, and even tweeted out the report himself, but nowhere in the report did he remotely make mention of Thomas demanding a trade from the New Orleans Saints.

Twitter
Twitter
loading...

This instantly led to confusion amongst Saints fans and football fans alike.

Soon people realized what was happening and both Rapoport and NFL Network were called out for what was sensationalizing at its worst, or simply an unprofessional bush league mistake at best.

What made matters worse is that after being called out by fans and local reporters, NFL Network and Rapoport let the package stay up as the clicks rolled in. Ian Rapoport himself even retweeted a post from John Hendrix calling them out for the gaffe.

By this morning (8/11), the tweet was deleted, but as you know nothing is ever truly "deleted" from the internet.

Scott Prather with our ESPN 1420 sister station presented a pretty good analogy explaining why the misstep from NFL Network only added fuel to the fire of an already chaotic situation.

My advice to Saints fans: Buckle up and strap in for a long season as we prepare to kick off the post-Brees era.

CHECK IT OUT: See the 100 most popular brands in America

More From 103.3 The GOAT