No Tweets Allowed

I was just watching ESPN’s NFL Live TV show and they were discussing the topic of “the dangers of Twitter”. They discussed how NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, implemented a rule last season prohibiting any NFL athlete from tweeting 90 minuets prior to a game clear until after the post game interviews. If this wasn’t bad enough, they then decided to go one step further, preventing all media staff on hand from tweeting as well. The NFL placed this rule to prohibit any type of play-by-play reporting to take place outside of a network broadcast. This included all social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook.



A rule like this one, without a doubt, puts a damper on any social media guru career. There are some journalists that owe all of their success to sites like Twitter. For many fans, they get enjoyment following their favorite athlete’s tweets and status’ prior to a game. This allows the average fan to get inside the locker room and inside the thoughts of a player. This is something that you would never be able to get close to five years ago. Never before could the fans break through the barrier of stardom to see what their hero was thinking at any given moment.
In today’s world, we are all subject to being a part of social media in one sense or another. There is nowhere to hide anymore and no way to prevent information for leaking out to the public, this includes how a play shakes down in an NFL game or what a player is thinking during pre-game.
Take a look the UFC president, Dana White. He not only encourages his athletes to tweet, he REQUIRES it. He is often times seen tweeting during a big fight, letting his fans know what his thoughts are on the situation. The result of his twitter frenzies, the UFC is now the fastest growing sport in the WORLD. The NFL almost had no season this year… but I digress.