Twitter is getting the BANT stick all over the NFL

[Gscottnc5]

If a player is twittering form camp, he is not focued on what he is supposed to be doing. I say no Twitter. Twitter is stupid anyway. GHEY!!!

[Jangler]

What's the difference between twitter and a message board?

[Skew]

What's the difference between twitter and a message board?

Tweeting = ghey, message board = uber cool.

[Kevin Greene]

Time to invest in Carrier Pigeon stock.

[Jangler]

Jbro?

[carolinarolls]

For as cute as the twitter technology seems on the service there is NO way Twitter can control the real power of this novelty. Twitter will remain in the news for all sorts of reasons and may just end up being the next Napster if enough people get together and claim that what is theirs is being shared without consent or compensation.

Any camp or any practice of any team in any sport can stick a webcam in the vicinity of their practice area and post a ridiculous price on their website selling access and then sue the poo out of anybody whoever tweets anything from their facility claiming "stolen content" and shut this Twitter / Sports relationship down real quick.

[janosha]

KC will be 18 - 0 this season. Thanks you freaking tweeters!

[pstall]

it's info overkill

[double_blue]

did you all catch the commentary on ESPN, i think on PTI, about Twittering in the NFL v. NBA. Basically they said the NBA was allowing it because of the star-based marketing nature of their team, while the NFL didnt due to the team-based marketing scheme. made a lot of sense. i think alot of players are trying to promote their individual brands, see Chad Ocho-CInco... twitter is defiantly helping them connect to fans on a much more individual basis, than their teams would like. certainly, a great example of this is the kemo situation, but more pointedly beason's ankle, where he tweeted about the status of his injury before the team released anything. bad news, the nfl owns a monopoly over their players and more importantly the information about their players. this is an uber-powerful marketing tool. and in fact is what the nfl tends to sell over everything else. it builds excitement over the week, and eventually brings the fan to the tv on sunday. this is what espn is for, except, because unlike twitter, the station can be controlled by the league. twitter threatens this monopoly on information because the nfl loses control over when and how it is distributed. unlike the nba, which has tomorrow nights game to promote itself, the nfl must sustain interest over an entire week. twitters free flow of information is why the nfl will not allow it. until they can legitimately control it, the old adage remains the same, loose twitter feeds sink ships.

[Panthers_Lover]

That's cheating!

j/k

I think they can ban players from tweeting during working hours (practices, meetings) and discussing actual team news.

But they can't ban reporters from tweeting (except during live games I think.)

They can pull a reporter's credentials. Sure, he could sit in the regular viewing area, but if they pull his credentials, he's not privy to coach and player availability after practice, etc. Not sure a legitimate reporter would want to give that up just because he couldn't Tweet.

[Zod]

The NFL is fighting a losing battle of controlling information about itself. It wants to become the only place you can read about, see pictures of, or watch anything to do with its teams, thats its goal within the next 5 years. The good news is they are fairly clueless and will realize what a waste of time and money it was within 2.

[dksmith17]

'Twitter' itself is not to blame here. Its technology in general. If NFL dumps twitter the public will just find another outlet. The only real way to control it is to ban phones and laptops at camp/practice/games etc. Which is basically impossible. Anyhow, what ever happened to America and rights to free press?

[Fireball77]

Well I can see coaches' concerns vis a vis injury info coming out via either player of fans at practice twittering or tweeting or whatever. If I were a HC I would would tell my players that any info about injuries than has not been expressly announced by me on your tweets, you get a fine. Same for any info about plays worked on at practices that are closed to the public/media. If I am concerned about fans tweeting about specific things I want my team to work on, I close that practice to the public. Media already knows Fox's policy on giving out info in their articles about specific plays (Fox does not allow it or access is revoked I believe).

[carolinarolls]

'Twitter' itself is not to blame here. Its technology in general. If NFL dumps twitter the public will just find another outlet. The only real way to control it is to ban phones and laptops at camp/practice/games etc. Which is basically impossible. Anyhow, what ever happened to America and rights to free press?

..those rights are still there they just infringe on capitalism and privacy (also civil liberties). And therein lies the issue.

The freedom of the press was part of a system of checks and balances put in place by the founding fathers to thwart tyranny. In no way was free press drafted into the constitution because the founding fathers intended to protect individuals in the futures who wish to seek profit at the expense of privacy and/or enterprise.

Many people today are confused about what "free press" is. I'll give you a hint, twitter does not fit the profile. Mainly because twitter is not "press" at all, at least not anything resembling responsible journalism that is.

This open-source novelty is already spilling over into what people consider to be responsible and trustworthy sources for media. The fact that there are no links to trusted sources and that anybody with a cell phone can contribute contaminates what is unique about a message board altogether. I don't hate Twitter but I think it has its own place.

If you are hawking somebodies tweets, fine. Just don't regurgitate that random person's blabber as a story and bait those who don't care with your best johnny newsroom thread title. This holds true no matter how "trusted you feel the source is. A, what you think is trusted, others may not and B, there are many reasons why there is a gap between the time when a reporter learns something and when that story hits the masses.

Twitter fans who are also forum fans should be able to do us all the favor of keeping the tweets on the tweet page. I thought it was neat too, before it spilled into the main forum disguised as some major scoop.