It's a Football Slumber Party

It was one of the most bizarre occurrences of my multimedia career. The day started out hot, humid and sunny, a typical West Virginia day. The vibe of Morgantown was through the roof because Marshall was coming to town and it was time for some much needed revenge after last year’s near upset in Huntington.
The football game got underway and everyone was having a great time. The weather had cooled off for us but the only problem was that the reason for the comfortable temperatures was a massive storm brewing off in the distance. We had a few warnings from the national weather service but no one thought twice about it. After all, when was the last time that a WVU game was interrupted by rain?
The contest made it to half time but mid way through the third quarter we were all forced to seek shelter for our safety. The storm was approaching fast. Much to the crowds dislike, everyone evacuated the seats. The media personnel were allowed to go into the weight room with the football players and cheerleaders from both teams. Just when we all thought that we were going to be allowed to get the party started again, it happened. A massive blot of lighting rained down from the sky’s and nearly hit the stadium.



1 delay, 2 delay, 3 delay 4… We had all been sitting around hanging out for nearly four hours, trying to not drown in our own boredom and most of all, not starve to death. Most of us, including the athletes, had not eaten since 11:30 that afternoon. Pizzas were even brought in for the players but sadly, they were not allowed to eat them due to the coaches’ fear of having to go back out and do battle with a full stomach of dough and cheese, two things that would not mix well.
It made for a long day, multiple dead batteries and wet clothes but in the end I don’t know of anyone who would have wanted it any other way. When is the next time that media, football players, the mountaineer mascot and cheerleaders will have a semi sleepover after a football victory?

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.