NFL investigating faux advertisment from Discovery Channel

If you’re a fan of survival shows and enjoyed the exploits of Bear Grylls and Les Stroud, you’re probably a pretty big fan of Discovery Channel’s relatively new survival show, ‘Naked and Afraid’.

The show debuted this past Summer and featured one man and one woman, both naked, left to fend for themselves (together) in a survival scenario for three weeks.

Naked people (despite being well blurred) obviously equal ratings and that’s exactly what the network received as it quickly became one of the most watched shows on the channel.

Hoping to capitalize off that success (or at least make an un-funny joke), the verified Twitter account for Naked and Afraid posted that three NFL players would be participating in the show’s upcoming season. Only problem? The NFL didn’t know about that, nor did the players who were reportedly involved and used in an advertisement on the verified social media account.

The photo featured shirtless pictures (likely digitally crafted) of Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith, New England Patriots defensive end Andre Carter and Tennessee Titans return man, Leon Washington:

The players were asked about the report and said they weren’t involved nor ever contacted to be on the show and TMZ is now reporting Discovery Channel thought it would be a funny joke since the players are big fans of the network:

"But a rep for the Discovery Channel tells us … it simply ain’t true — it was just a poorly executed joke from the social media team because the players are all big Discovery Channel fans … and it wasn’t meant to insinuate the guys would appear on the show."

CBS’ Jason La Canfora says the league is now investigating:

Talk about some strange events.