The sports world’s been rocked again. No, not about an illegal dog fighting ring or alleged abuse this time…it’s much more scandalous than any of that. It’s about – gasp! – athlete tweeting! Cue the infamous Psycho film score here.
Yes, it’s true. College athletes and pro athletes alike are being talked to about their extracurricular activities and this time, it involves their social media dalliance. Teams are slapping wrists and setting a new set of rules for social media: no tweeting so many hours before the game, no giving away any secret game plan info and for Pete’s sake, no tweeting in the huddle!
Okay, we added this last one, but that’s probably next.
Recently, Jim Leavitt, football coach for Tampa’s University of South Florida, announced his own decision to stop tweeting after a few players’ Twitter updates just minutes before a game were brought to his attention (http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/09/09/usfs-leavitt-signs-off-twitter/). While the coach didn’t formally implement a new tweeting policy for the players themselves, he said he certainly didn’t condone their actions.
The NFL did take a stand and formally issued its own social media policy (http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=286848), that players, coaches and team operational personnel were allowed to use sites like Twitter and Facebook 90 minutes before games and after regular post-game press conferences but not during the games. The league still does not allow league officials and officiating department personnel to take part in social media and continues to ban play-by-play reporting on social media platforms.
It’s an interesting twist with social media and the role it can play in professional and collegiate sports. After all, Twitter has become a tremendous recruiting tool for talent scouts across sports (http://www.coloradoavalanchecares.com/columns/recruiting/how-twitter-is-changing-the-face-of-recruiting/) and many teams have latched on to social media especially as a way to grow and nurture faltering fan bases, given the struggle to fill stadiums and avoid mandatory TV blackouts (http://www.buffalonews.com/494/story/771980.html). The debate continues, because while it pays to let the fans in, how far do you crack open the door – this wide or THIIIIISSSS wide?
What do you think about professional sports and social media? Should it be a case of church and state or is there room for some co-mingling in this highly interactive, highly lucrative international industry?
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