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 Kids these days and their Twitter. Yes, another professional athlete felt the heavy hand after a poor choice on how to use his 140 characters. New York Jets wide receiver David Clowney was suspended by head coach Rex Ryan on Sunday when the Jets played the Tennessee Titans because Clowney tweeted about his lack of playing time. After the Jets beat the New England Patriots, Clowney tweeted: “1 play in the 1st Half, 4 plays in the 2nd half…bit disappointed about my playing but very happy and satisfied about the win.”
Coach Ryan said he suspended Clowney because he felt the tweeter put himself above the team. “If I feel a guy is not putting the team first,” Ryan said, “I’ll make that decision to put the guy down. Ryan is not the only unhappy head Honcho, Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach recently banned his players from having Twitter pages. Leach said social networking sites are “stupid distractions.” He went on to say “I think Twitter is stupid to being with. Anyone who plays college football gets enough attention. They don’t need twitter.”
Twitter seems to be a persistent thorn in the side of professional sports teams and leagues. From CV1 a.k.a. Charlie Villanueva tweeting at half time to Terrell Owens tweeting the news of rookie Aaron Maybin’s signing, leagues have tried to tame the twitter monster. The NFL put out strict policies as a reaction to these Twitter faux pas. The NBA is taking a much lighter approach by simply banning in-game tweeting. Major League Baseball and the NHL are yet to address the problem. But is it a problem? Many are saying no and even going as far as to criticize the NFL’s harsh policy.
Critics argue that restricting players social networking takes away from the one-to-one connection between players and fans. IT Business Edge blogger Patrick Avery wrote, “I don’t see how it could do harm to let a few players continue to entertain NFL fans.” The NFL says players may entertain fans until 90 minutes before kickoff but, the NFL’s policy goes far beyond just players tweeting. It covers media, coaches, officials and all personnel involved. Here is what the NFL policy says:
"Longstanding policies prohibiting play-by-play descriptions of NFL games in progress apply fully to Twitter and other social media platforms. Internet sites may not post detailed information that approximates play-by-play during a game. While a game is in progress, any forms of accounts of the game must be sufficiently time-delayed and limited in amount (e.g., score updates with detail given only in quarterly game updates) so that the accredited organization's game coverage cannot be used as a substitute for, or otherwise approximate, authorized play-by-play accounts."
Where do the fans come in? What if a fan tweets play-by-play from the nosebleeds? According to an article in Forbes Magazine, the NFL’s policy prohibits fans from posting video of NFL action. But, the article says, the NFL will have a difficult time enforcing the policy because they would have to prove the posted video actually reduced the value of the TV broadcast.
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Matthew Coller is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, and is a freelance writer. He can be followed on Twitter
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