The Patriots Hit 1 Million Twitter Followers, Then Made A Huge Mistake

    An attempt to thank their fans with an online jersey for being "the 1st NFL team with 1 million Twitter followers," failed miserably when a user created a custom shirt displaying a racial slur.

    Michael Rusch
    by Michael Rusch

    BuzzFeed News Reporter

    Here is the original Tweet sent by the @Patriots account today:

    New England Patriots @Patriots

    We're saying thanks to @patriots' 1million followers w/ custom digital Pats jerseys - RT for yours! #1MillionPatriots

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    Everything appeared to be going fine on their Twitter feed...

    Twitter: @Patriots

    ...until this Tweet showed up:

    The Patriots apologized on Twitter saying, "Our filtering system failed" and "will be more vigilant in the future."

    New England Patriots @Patriots

    We apologize for the regrettable tweet that went out from our account. Our filtering system failed & we will be more vigilant in the future.

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    These two Twitter users sum it all up pretty well:

    Seth Fiegerman @sfiegerman

    Last minute entry for worst tweet of 2014

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    Jason Sparks @sparksjls

    Live shot of the @Patriots front office

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