Social Media Consultation

Hamza Malik

Freshmen Media Literacy

Social Media Consultation: NFL in Action

NFL players, and those in the other major pro sports, are learning that the impersonal fans of old are morphing into the we-take-it-personal fans of today when it comes to Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media. Twitter allows each player to hold his own national forum each day, without reporters or microphones, creating a bond that never existed before between athlete and fan, participant and spectator. For instance, many of Maurkice Pouncey's 135,000 followers on Twitter feel a special kinship to the three-time Pro Bowl center because he often tweets a dozen times or more per day, creating the impression of a one-on-one relationship. Pouncey also gives away prizes at random. And some of Ike Taylor's 119,000 followers likely were drawn to him because of the inspirational messages he relays each day.

The Eagles, for example, review the Twitter and Facebook pages of all prospective draft picks, if only to gauge a player's personality and detect possible trouble. Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert discourages but doesn't ban players from tweeting — more than 70 Steelers players do — but asks them to be professional and courteous. Tomlin unexpectedly jumped on the Twitter bandwagon last month, saying he wanted to give his players a social media role model.

Charley Casserly, a former general manager of the Redskins and Texans, would dislike his players being equipped with such a potentially troublesome tool. Still, with more than 1,000 NFL players on Twitter, it's becoming more difficult for teams to put the social media genie back into the bottle. “When I've given talks to teams about how to handle the media, I tell them social media is like having a national press conference: Everyone has access to it,” said Casserly, an NFL Network analyst. “When you go for a national press conference, you're composed, you've thought out what you're going to say, you're in a reserved mood and careful. On Twitter, some things will come out that shouldn't be out there. And there's a level of mental toughness that you have to have to be on Twitter because anybody can access you, anybody can say anything to you. How does that affect you?” On Twitter or Facebook, blocking an individual prevents them from accessing that account. Some players stick to the basics, with benign comments and go-team messages. Others are apt to discuss anything that's on their mind. That's why some teams tell their players to remember that the first four letters in Twitter are twit — and not to be one when they post a message that can be read by a potential audience of 500 million.