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Pope Francis hilariously tweets support for NFL franchise

Pope Francis has inadvertently endeared himself to American football fans after making a hilarious mistake in a recent social media post.

The 82-year-old head of the Catholic Church, made an important announcement on Twitter over the weekend.

He appeared to announce to the whole world and his 18 million Twitter followers that he is a fan of NFL franchise, the New Orleans Saints.

Before any Saints fan starts imagining the elderly pontiff riding in the Super Bowl parade in his famous Pope Mobile, perhaps while wearing many sets of beads around his neck, the reality of the tweet is far less exciting.

Rather than demonstrating his apparent love of American Football, the Pope was referring to actual saints when he accidentally tagged the NFL franchise.

Pope Francis canonised five new saints at the Vatican on Sunday: Cardinal John Henry Newman, Giuseppina Vannini, Mariam Thresia Chiaramel Mankidiyan, Dulce Lopes Pontes and Marquerite Bays.

Pope Francis, being an aged religious figure, didn’t realise that hashtagging “Saints” on Twitter would make the football team’s logo appear, since Catholic saints have been around for over 1,000 years.

Pope Francis accidentally tagged the New Orleans Saints in a post on Twitter.
Pope Francis accidentally tweeted his support for the New Orleans Saints. Pic: Getty

It’s not terribly surprising that Pope Francis didn’t know about Twitter giving the “Saints” hashtag to the football team. The man is over 80, doesn’t watch television and spends most of his days praying and visiting the Catholic faithful.

On top of all of that, he’s from Argentina, a country where the other football (aka soccer) is the most popular sport.

In fact, Pope Francis is an avid soccer fan, and has found ways to follow the sport despite making a promise to the Virgin Mary in 1990 to never watch television.

The obvious mistake didn’t stop football fans from sending Pope Francis replies asking for his intercession on other football matters, and from just plain having fun with the pontiff’s adorable Twitter mistake.

The Pope’s blessing may have been unintentional, but the Saints thanked him anyway after their 13-6 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

With Yahoo Sports US