The Backwards Thinking Of Some NFL Teams In Regards To Twitter

By Ryan Corazza

So, lots of Twitter news coming down the line yesterday. (Which I know you all just love!) There was the ESPN memo. There was the Denver post calling out J.R. Smith for supposed gang-related tweets.  There was some NFL teams taking a hard stance against what their players can and can’t do on the platform — including the Chargers fining Antonio Cromartie for a tweet about the poor food at camp.

But the most ridiculous news bit to emerge Tuesday? Twelve NFL teams decided to go against the league’s recommendation of letting reporters tweet/blog from camp, and instead, banned it.

This is just silly.

Even Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star — a guy that’s not on Twitter and has never blogged, and is about as old school as they come in the media game — knows how wrong this policy is.

“I think several teams (that prohibit it) look at practice more as an educational opportunity for the media as opposed to a coverage issue,” Aiello said.

Yes, well, thanks for the education, but we’d like to serve our readers, the fans, the people who pay your salaries.

[ ... ]

One reason I’ve heard for the blogging/tweeting prohibition is that teams don’t want reporters sending out erroneous information based on what they see. Teams want to have time for the coach to address those issues, maybe set the record straight on what happened to Player X.

Which is ridiculous.

At training camp, where practices are open to the public, nothing is off-limits. If an assistant coach verbally dresses down a rookie, a fan can tweet it. If a player twists his left ankle, a fan can blog it.

Yeah, and that’s the thing here: if the media isn’t tweeting away — people with credible names, those that strive for truth and accuracy in reporting — someone else siting in the stands will. And those people in the stands won’t have access to PR people and coaches and players, so it’s easier for misinformation to slip through the cracks via the common fan. Wouldn’t NFL teams be better served to allow reporters to be the filter on this information? Those that do it for a living and perhaps have a better grasp of things?

Just last night, I was reading Da’ Bears Blog and Jeff had this to say: “If you’re not on Twitter you probably have a life off the computer and I’m slowly becoming jealous. However, I’ve got a stream of updates from Brad Biggs, David Haugh and ESPN Chicago’s Jeff Dickerson all day long.  It is the absolute best way to get a sense of the mood in Bourbonnais (outside of attending yourself).”

This is true: If you’re a Bears fan and you’re following their beat reporters on Twitter, you’re going to get a ton of info all day long on the team from Twitter. It’s great. It’s instant access right there for you on your computer screen or cell phone. As a fan, this is just terrific access and information.

But for those stuck in the twelve team no-Twitter zone, they’re missing out on more information about their team — for no good reason at all.

And that’s a shame.

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