August 3rd, 2009 by Andy Merchant
Over the last few days one particular sports star hit the headlines with his improper use of Twitter.
The star in question was Darren Bent, Tottenham Hotspur’s centre forward. The controversy started when the star’s proposed transfer to Sunderland hit dodgy ground. Bents’ response to this was to vent his anger on his personal Twitter account:
“Seriously getting p***ed off now,” read his first message.
The striker then went on to add: “Why can’t anything be simple? Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest. Do I wanna go Hull City? NO. Do I wanna go Stoke? NO. Do I wanna go Sunderland? YES.”
Bent later went to make this public apology: “I appreciate that transfers are seldom straightforward and are often complex. However, after a long period of waiting following my withdrawal from the plane to China, I had become incredibly frustrated by the time these things take and I posted inappropriate comments on my Twitter site.”
Shortly after this controversy unfolded, which made national television and back-page newspaper headlines, Tottenham introduced microblogging guidelines for all staff and players.
Moving on to the NFL - similar rumblings have been felt.
Recently, San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman tweeted: “Coach said we can’t tweet in the blding so i called my lawyer and found a lupo [loophole] in that contract…tweeting outside yeaaaaa.”
Other instances include Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco (formerly Chad Johnson) and the league. Last month, Ochocinco floated the idea that he would Twitter from the sidelines during regular season games.
The league sent out word almost immediately that it has a pre-existing rule barring the use of mobile devices from the bench area. Ochocinco, who has nearly 79,000 followers, immediately responded on his Twitter page: “Damn NFL and these rules, I am going by my own set of rules, I ain’t hurting nobody or getting in trouble, I am putting my foot down!!”
Now sports stars are increasingly seeing the power of a tweet and the resulting effect it can have, especially on employees and governing bodies and, moving forward, tweets with endorsements.
I will leave you with this thought.
Top sports star with 1 million followers starts tweeting about all his Nike gear - what’s that worth to Nike?
