Darrelle Revis Says Instagram Was Hacked

Darrelle Revis photo via Wikimedia Commons

Over the weekend, the Instagram account of Darrelle Revis, recent Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots, and now a member of the New York Jets, engaged in a flame war with critics. As noted by Deadspin, the unidentified hacker posted a series of profane, offensive, and downright malicious comments directed at scorned Patriots fans and the usual populace of haters that lurk in the festering social media favelas that spread out beneath all celebrity accounts.

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have him to thank for their Super Bowl win, the account said, among other sexist and sexually charged remarks. It was shocking stuff, to be sure, but even more unbelievable than the comments attributed to the all-pro cornerback themselves was his response after the fact.

“My IG got hacked. No big deal!!!” he tweeted on Sunday, a sentiment echoed by his agent.

Sure it was.

The prospect of our social media accounts being hacked into is something that we’re all keenly aware of now, as tales of stolen identities and bank accounts abound. It’s something public figures have to be particularly vigilant in protecting against, based on the sheer, brute number of would-be hackers who have them in their sights.

As the celebrity nude photo hack of last year showed us, there is, unfortunately, a huge audience for the type of things that can be accessed when one finds their way beyond their defenses. That was an extreme case, to be sure.

More often in instances like these, like with Taylor Swift, whose Twitter and Instagram accounts were hacked early this year, hackers tend to simply wreak a little mischief, or to shout-out the handle of the hacker.

Another common tactic when a celebrity or brand account has been compromised is for the the hacker to make their presence known in as obvious a manner as possible. A couple of years ago, Burker King’s Twitter account was taken over, and its photo was replaced by the McDonald’s golden arches. A similar fate befell Jeep not long thereafter. In other instances, the hacker will say deliberately atonal, or blatantly uncharacteristic things, if only to speed along the process of their handiwork being noticed, say, when ISIS-supporting groups hacked various media organizations numerous times over the past year.

There’s no fun in doing all the work involved if you’re going to be subtle about it. When Kris Jenner’s Instagram was hacked last year, they posted, “I don’t like Kanye West! I just pretend I do so my daughters can make a profit.”

Responding to purposefully provocative Patriots fans telling him he’d made a poor decision to leave the team, Revis, or “Revis” wrote, in one example:

I gotta a ring, I’m paid & worth more then you. I look better then you & my dick is bigger then yours so safe all the bull for somebody who cares cause I don’t. Your a pimple on my ass.

And elsewhere, to someone who offered an opinion about the game:

wait did you physically go out there & play? Like did you actually play one down, lol no. So your best is to shut the f**k up, be a spectator, watch me do something you wish you could do

The most striking comment, particularly to Patriots fans, came in his remarks about what got him the Super Bowl ring in the first place. He owed it all to Brady, one commenter said.

& they ain’t win another one until I came dickhead so who got who a ring. Shit I didn’t have to go there so basically I did bill & Tom a favor not the other way around c**t.

When one woman remarked that he would likely be getting fined for the tirade, he was unimpressed.

get fined for sharing comments wit you on my page sorry i’m not getting fined that clearly shows you have no clue what your talking about. Woman do do your hair & make up & go play with Barbie dolls. Stay out of two men having a conversation #girlcode

While none of that seems like the type of thing you’d expect a professional athlete in his right mind to say online, it is, in fact, consistent with the way Revis often comports himself. CBS Boston found a list of instances in which Revis made the “then/than” mix up, and that “you wish you could play like me“ line of argument is something he’s trotted out numerous times before.

The list of athletes who’ve resorted to the old “The dog ate my Twitter account” excuse is long, but the fact that it’s happened before doesn’t make this time any easier to swallow.

Unlike those committing more serious criminal offenses, a hacker who gained access to a celebrity account actually wants to be seen for what they’re doing. What would be the point of hacking into a celebrity account, then continuing to talk in the same tone and grammatical style, not to mention about the same type of topics that the poster typically uses?

Revis is famous for his ability to read an offense, to be able to anticipate what a receiver might do before he even gets there himself. This time, by blaming his meltdown on a “hacker”, he’s become as obvious and predictable as the worst offenses in the league he usually feasts on, like, say, the one fielded by the perennial loser New York Jets for example.

If that offends you, I’m sorry, someone hacked my account.