‘SportsCenter’ Apologizes For Odd Video Camera Tweet During Patriots Game (Photo)

Monday’s New England Patriots-Buffalo Bills game was a long one.

Quarters seemed to drag on for a longer-than-usual amount of time, to the point that the game’s (lack of) speed was relatively tangible. Part of that was because of sloppy play. Part of it was the numerous video reviews that often resulted from the sloppy play. Regardless, anyone watching the game felt the clock ticking.

That included the people who run the official ESPN “SportsCenter” Twitter account.

🏈📹🏈📹🏈📹🏈📹🏈📹🏈

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 24, 2015

For those not running an iOS- or emoji-capable device, that tweet features nothing but footballs and video cameras.

The Internet, predictably, exploded with comments from Patriots lovers and haters alike — seemingly all of whom saw the tweet as a SpyGate reference.

Given the circumstances, it was fairly obvious the tweet was in reference to the game’s gruelingly slow progression, but The Internet is The Internet, so ESPN had to clarify the controversial emoji message.

CLARIFICATION: We were referencing the numerous replays and length of MNF. It didn’t come across. That's our mistake. We'll be better.

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 24, 2015