Arian Foster Injury Update: Star Tweets MRI, ESPN Says It's a Hamstring Tear

Houston Texans star Arian Foster thinks you’re sick for caring so much about his fantasy status, but his injury has set off a firestorm around the Web.

There's plenty of fantasy experts out there who have made the one-year wonder into their no-doubt-about-it No. 1 fantasy draft pick. An injury in Week 3 action caused a year's worth of anxiety as virtual GMs tried to play armchair orthopedist with Foster's hamstring.

Then came Wednesday afternoon, when Foster fueled the speculation by Tweeting out a photo of his MRI. What was meant to be a cool inside look turned into a borderline news event. 

What began so innocently may have just become another reason for athletes to jump offline. Let's track the evolution of the Interwebs brushfire.

The Tweet That Started It All

Innocent enough, right? 

Athlete just posting a photo ... of an MRI!?!?!

Whoa, cool.

The Photo That Started the Uproar

Yes, Foster actually tweeted out a picture of his MRI.

And that "anti-awesomeness" white stuff he referred to got a whole lot of people using way more serious words.

ESPN Fires Up the Expert Machine

Did we really think The Professor wasn't going to take this photo next level?

The problem here is that by giving us this much information, he opened the door to a whole lot of people caring more. Enter ESPN. They’ve got fancy medical experts, you know.

A Report Then Taken as "News"

From there, the story took a life of its own on Twitter. The ESPN diagnosis was taken for breaking news, and the Web suddenly started planning for every possible contingency plan.

Some were luckier than others.

Others Didn't Take the News so Well

Before there was any confirmation of ESPN's diagnosis being correct, the story spread into a national fantasy panic. 

Seasons were already ruined before a single post-lockout snap.

Then the Haters Jumped In

Was ESPN really ethical in jumping on the MRI tweet and turning this in to a full-blown fantasy and real-world catastrophe for the Houston Texans?

Folks like @AlfieBCC didn't like the move one iota.

Then the Other Haters Jumped In

Others pointed out that Foster’s Twitter stunt just pointed out the inherent dangers and idiocy of pulling back the curtain too far. And somehow, Chris Johnson got thrown under the same bus. 

Not that CJ doesn't deserve his own hate, but Jack, it's a little stretch of the hammy to connect these two here.

Foster Spins It as a Funny, but Can We Laugh?

Hours later, Foster was back on Twitter making fun of the incident and squelching the "news" of his demise.

If it was a joke, it was a real bad one and an awful use of Twitter.

If the MRI is real, are ESPN's doctors way off base?

An impatient nation awaits a verdict here. Unfortunately we won't know for sure until the Texans address the controversy officially ...

or until Foster tweets a photo of his own doc giving us a big thumbs up sign.