In this day and age, no one can deny the presence of social media in our culture. But should athletes use caution when taking part in social media? Or should they be banned from using it all together?
In 2013, sports fans get quite the special treatment. Only in this day and age can your average fan sign up for Twitter or Facebook and follow their fair share of favorite athletes and see what they’re thinking off the court/ice/field/diamond. But then there’s something that your average fan shouldn’t have read on Twitter, but did because of their favorite athlete speaking or acting out of line.
Of all the recent events in which this is happened, and why the idea of getting athletes away from acting out has been recently reviewed is due to the case involving Aaron Hernandez. Back on June 26th, Hernandez was arrested and charged with murder. Since then, via social media and other outlets of free speech, athletes among citizens have expressed either their stance for or against defending Hernandez. A few days ago, NFL players Maurkice and Mike Pouncey expressed their stance for supporting for Hernandez by wearing “Free Hernandez” hats at a club. 20 years ago, the only folks who know about them wearing those hats, are those in the club that saw it. But with social media, one picture gets taken and the World Wide Web instantly sees it and it’s on ESPN the next day.
And then there’s going directly to social media such as Twitter to post your opinion on a case such as the Zimmerman Trial. Following the Not Guilty verdict on Zimmerman, Victor Cruz and Roddy White made it blatantly clear why professional athletes should steer clear of the internet, period. The night of the verdict, Falcons receive Roddy White tweeted “All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid.” If that wasn’t extreme enough, a few hours later Victor Cruz tweeted “Thoroughly confused. Zimmerman doesn’t last a year before the hood catches up to him.”
Regardless of the opinions themselves, both players did in fact delete their tweets and later apologized on Twitter, but no one can actually believe that their apologies came straight from the heart. Their initial tweets did. Their apologetic tweets came when the public saw their extreme tweets, followed by their teams likely forcing an apology out of their employees. But these teams shouldn’t be put in such a corner to quiet their personnel.
I’ll be the first person to stand up for the first amendment as a member of the media, but these athletes expressing their extreme at time opinions, is getting to be too much. For these athletes that have hundreds and thousands of followers on twitter, including many young fans of these athletes that are supposed to act as role models, enough is enough. These athletes are supposed to refrain from lashing out in any means because they represent more than themselves.
These “professionals” sign multi-million dollar contracts to become the face of the city they play in, and then can stand for what every young boy or girl wants to be when they grow up. But when you have players such as Cruz and White putting such extreme tweets out there, and those such as the Pouncey brothers displaying their support for a man who is charged with killing another human being, those actions can very well poison the next generation. It could end up showing our next athletes that it’s okay to do and say whatever you please as long as you become the best in your field of work and rake in the big bucks.
Having said that, I won’t necessarily go to the extreme and say that professional athletes should be banned from using social media to express their thoughts, but I can tell you that these billion-dollar franchises are definitely pondering the idea to save face.
Anthony Rodriguez
Anthony is the Founder, Administrator, Editor and Publisher of Lightning Rod Sports. Originally from California, Anthony has been raised in the Rocky Mountains and Denver area for most of his life. Anthony works with the Emmy-winning student-run T.V. newscast at MSU Denver, The Met Report, as the Assistant General Manager, formerly the Sports Producer, as well as Lead Anchor and Production Assistant. He is currently the Play-by-Play Announcer, Color Commentator, and Production Assistant for the Metro State Broadcast Network, and calls games for Metro State soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball as a “Voice of the Roadrunners.” In addition to that work with the Metro State Broadcast Network, Anthony also hosts the monthly 30-minute magazine show called "The Roadrunner Review" which airs on Altitude Sports and Entertainment. He hosts the bi-weekly "KMet Sports Show" on KMET Radio at MyMetMedia.com/KMETSportsShow. He is also the Founder, Administrator, Editor, and Columnist for his own Denver Sports website, LightningRodSports.com. Anthony is also part of the Social Media team at Examiner.com, and has worked with the Altitude Radio Network for the Avalanche and Nuggets. Anthony is a former Producer for Mile High Sports Radio, as well as a former Sports-Talk show host on the LightningRod Radio Network.
