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Greg Jennings kicks off April Fools with elaborate free-agency fakeout

Eric Edholm
Greg Jennings kicks off April Fools with elaborate free-agency fakeout

Free-agent wide receiver Greg Jennings, who was released by the Minnesota Vikings last month, teased his loyal followers (328,000+ strong) and fans with a few social-media bombs Tuesday night, hinting at a new NFL destination.

This got people a bit fired up. The Miami Dolphins were mentioned as a possible landing spot, given Joe Philbin's connection to Jennings from their Green Bay days together. Jennings met with the Carolina Panthers recently, a seemingly nice match of need and talent. Seattle Seahawks faithful imagined the charismatic Jennings joining a cast of undrafted wide receivers and acting as consigliere to the group. A possible return to the Packers? Jennings said previously he'd be more than open to the idea, hinting at regret at how he left the team in the first place.

The possibilities were rife. Jennings kept the anticipation at a fever pitch with a series of tweets late Tuesday night.

But certainly in this day and age of social media and round-the-clock NFL coverage, someone was going to get this scoop first, right? After all, this is a receiver who was due to make $9 million this season before being cut with more than 8,000 receiving yards, good for 15th among active wide receivers. Not exactly bottom-of-the-roster fodder we're talking about.

Jennings apparently wanted to keep the news very closely guarded.

There was even talk on Jennings' Twitter feed of DMing one lucky follower his next destination — a cute idea if we ever heard one. People were grasping at straws — just give us something, Greg!

Then he said he's make the announcement public late Tuesday night, and everyone would find out at the same time.

There was even a countdown ...

Jennings then said he'd link to Sqor, the athlete-fan connecting site backed by old teammate Brett Favre, on Twitter. And that's when he laid it on us:

Did you click? The page is blank. #savedyouaclick

We appreciate Jennings' gallows humor here in his time of uncertainty. And we're pretty sure he'll find a landing spot soon. We also are a fan of solid April Fools humor. This certainly qualifies, with Jennings perhaps making a subtle nod to fans' obsession with the 24-7-365 NFL news cycle and we media who seek to scratch that itch for them.

Well played. Now go find a good team to sign with, and wait until after April 1 to do so, so that we know it's legit, please.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!