in his waistband, is a sports figure with a Twitter account. Many of them tend to stray
far from their expertise and intellectual level and try to be funny in 140 characters or
less, often shooting themselves in the foot.
Who can forget Charlie Villaneuva, NBA player and aspiring rocket scientist sending
his thoughts out during halftime of game?
"In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We're playing the Celtics, tie ball game
at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up."
Yeah, step it up, Charlie, and remember that every tweet you make usually gets back
to the organization you're playing for. Might be just a hunch, but I think it happens.
Villanueva's tweet ended up hitting him hard in the wallet and causing the NBA to
ban tweets before and during games. Imagine that?
(For other dumb tweets see Antonio Cromartie, LeBron James, Larry Johnson, and
Cappie Pondexter who tweeted that Japan deserved what they had coming with
the tsunami a few years back)
Ted Bishop wasn't as fortunate as Villanueva, as the president of the PGA of America
suffered a "death by tweet." He lost his job after failing to control an urge to criticize
European golfer Ian Poulter who had recently slammed Tom Watson and Nick Faldo
in a recent book.
Bishop tweeted, "Faldo's record stands by itself. Six majors and all-time RC points.
Yours vs. His? Lil Girl.''
"Lil Girl" turned out to be the seven deadliest characters in the history of Bishop's tweets,
costing him a presitigous and a highly-coveted job in the golf world. He was
impeached by his contemporaries, forcing him to give up his title, paycheck, and into
years of embarrassment. He spends more than six decades building a sterling reputation
and it all goes Ka-boom in a flash.
All because of a tweet.
Oh, I understand. If Paul Devlin tweets that Ian Poulter is a "Lil Girl", nobody blinks
or even notices. But when you're a public figure in this politically correct world, tweeting
something derogatory is sure to offend some group whether it be women, gays, minorities,
religious affiliations, and those with disabilities. Trouble is, all these sports figures
and other celebrities, never seem to learn or figure that out.
Honestly, I haven't figured out the irresistible need that people have to tweet their thoughts.
Most of them are really juvenile and worthless, anyway. I don't care where you're eating,
what the weather is like, or what you think about the Obama Administration. It doesn't
matter.
Some people like Bishop and many athletes, seem to use Twitter as a platform to test out
their comedic material, which in most cases, isn't very comedic at all. They should just stick
to what they are good at.
I often feel that most people tweet because they crave the almighty 'like' or 'retweet'. Or
perhaps, they just want to see it up show up on 'SportsCenter'. (ESPN seems to be more
obsessed with tweets than they were with their incessant coverage of Tim Tebow when
he was relevant.
Full disclosure: I have a Twitter account for my blog. I use it to promote it but rarely
chime in with my thoughts about current events because frankly, they do not matter.
Athletes and other public figures should think about taking that route when they are
using Twitter. Your thoughts really don't matter all that much until you tweet something
really stupid. Then the politically correct world with a hatchet pounces on you quicker
than you can tweet, "ur fired!"
Many of them found that out, few have ever really learned.
Ted Bishop didn't, that's for sure and it cost him dearly. Lil Girl.
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