I’m a big New York Jets fan.
I’m not a crazy, irrational, talk-about-the-team-in-the-first-person, Jets fan, but I definitely a big fan. Accordingly, one of the blogs that I like to frequent is TheJetsBlog.com. It gives daily news and information about the Jets; which is cool, especially that I live in Virginia.
A recent post on the site discussed the NFL considering a policy on in-game tweeting by players and personnel. The post generated numerous comments, including one by yours truly. Apparently, I was the only one who supported allowing participants to tweet from the sidelines during games.
It seems that the most popular objection to allowing tweets from the sidelines was that players should be concentrating on the game, and not tweeting from a phone or computer. Ok, I get that, I guess. But the point I was making in my comment is just as applicable in a football game as it is in any other endeavor in life– players aren’t ALWAYS focused on the game. For better or worse, this is the way it is. I’ve played in many an athletic contest, and officiated even more of them. If you think that every waking moment of the players is devoted to the game on the field, you’re kidding yourself.
I’m not sure why this comes a surprise to so many people. I mean, how many people go to work everyday and concentrate on their job all day long? No one. Really, no one. It’s just not possible. In order for you to concentrate as hard as you need to on the most important aspects of a long task, you need to break for a little bit to regroup. You can do any physical or mental task perpetually. At some point, you gotta break to refuel. Professional football players are no different.
I see no problem with allowing players to tweet during said breaks. Rather than sitting on the bench daydreaming, why not allow them to give fans some insight into the game?
To me, the sport that does the absolute best job of filling down-time with valuable information and content for fans is NASCAR. If you watch a NASCAR broadcast, every yellow flag is filled with interviews of crew-chiefs, listen-ins to team communication, and even in-car interviews with drivers. NASCAR fans get more information about the sport during the contest than any other fans on the planet, and they love it; and the participants don’t complain about it, either.
So, I’m not really sure what the big deal is. Let the teams decide. If they want to stop their players from tweeting, fine. If, however, there is a team that would like to test the waters and open up a bit more to the fans, why would the league want to stand in their way?
