The Finger Wag – Athletes using Twitter and Social Media to their Disadvantage

Yesterday Quentin Groves was traded from the Jacksonville Jaguars to the Oakland Raiders for a reported fifth round pick.

Adam Schefter reported this around 5 PM yesterday. He was beat to the story by someone. Who?

QuentinGroves54

(Q)

Duval County....I LOVE U GUYS...thanks for all your support...New Starts=New Beginnings...OAKLAND HERE I COME!!!! On 6:47 PM Apr 21st 2010 from Twittelator

Quentin Groves broke this news himself. I have no idea if this is the first time this has happened or just the first time I saw it but I thought it was a pretty cool thing to do. The guy reached out to his fans and friends first to break the news. He spent the better part of the next few hours answering questions from his followers and confirming the trade as people heard about.

Good luck in Oakland Quentin.

You may remember awhile back we highlighted a great moment in Santonio Holmes social networking career. In summation he told a fan who vilified him for harassing women to kill himself. Granted he said it much better than I just did there: U shud try finding the worst thing that you could drink n kill urself

Great stuff there.

Well don’t worry folks Santonio didn’t do it! He spoke to NJ.com
and had this to say for himself:

“It wasn’t me,” Holmes said. “I never tried to defend myself on that topic among anyone on Twitter or among anyone that tried to ask me for interviews. I would definitely be accountable for my actions if I did say it.”

So what does one do when their twitter account is hacked? According to twitter.com the proper move is:

“It’s best to take action as soon as possible if updates are appearing in your account that you did not intend to have posted or approve.”

So I assume Santonio did just this and came back on and told everyone what time it was. Wake and Bake time of course.

So what did Santonio have to say on his first tweet since the big trade to the Jets:

santonio10

(Santonio Holmes)

Morning, the lessons from my bad choices are never forgotten, only to b utilized the next go round! On 1:15 PM Apr 13th 2010 from UberTwitter

Would of those lessons be not using password1 as your twitter password?

Also, if you didn’t find this post hilarious I would just like to say now that my account was hacked.

Santonio Holmes to the Jets for a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Revis24

(Darrelle Revis)

Wow we got holmes this is crazy. We makin big moves this off-season. Putting the pieces together to get closer to that superbowl ring. On 4:24 AM Apr 12th 2010 from UberTwitter

So the Steelers traded their Superbowl MVP Santonio Holmes for a fifth round pick.

The question is why?

A contract year for a player who has been suspended (and according to @ADAM_SCHEFTER will be suspended yet again) for drugs and is currently battling an assault case will be the excuse. They don’t want to bring him back next year due to all this and might as well get something for him now.

Could this be a message to Big Ben?

No comment on twitter from Santonio yet but when he does break the silence we will be there to make fun of him.

As for the Jets, all I can say is this.

I can’t wait to watch Hard Knocks.

NBA/NHL Playoffs

BigMay42

(Sean May)

Huge game on.... Chicago vs Toronto ..... Both fighting for the 8th spot in the east On 10:45 PM Apr 11th 2010 from TweetDeck

jeskeets

(J.E. Skeets)

Goodbye, sweet playoffs. On 12:30 AM Apr 12th 2010 from TweetDeck

J.E. Skeets (@jeskeets) is one of my favorite bloggers to follow on twitter, guy is hilarious. He is also a Raptors fan. I am a huge Chicago Bulls fan so for the next few days we are on opposite sides of this story.

So the East is all setup except for one spot. The Bulls now have a lead on the Raptors but the “magic number” to “mathematically eliminate” the Raptors is still at 2 because they own the tiebreaker over the Bulls.

With the way the Bulls shit the bed versus the Nets on Friday night and Vinnie Del Negro refusing to play Noah even though he is the main hustle guy on the team I wouldn’t count out the Raptors just yet.

The West is still a mess, we know the 8 teams going in but the rankings are still up for grabs. It should be an entertaining few days.

JLupul

(Joffrey Lupul)

Philly vs NYR shootout to get in the playoffs is the situation everyone feared when we adopted the shootout... On 9:45 PM Apr 11th 2010 from web

In the NHL the playoffs are now set. There was a defacto play-in game last night between the Rangers and Flyers, an excellent game by all accounts. That is, except for the ending. The game ended at 2-1 when Claude Giroux scored a goal in an OT shootout to clinch the playoff spot.

The question is though, is that how the playoffs should be decided? This is a relatively new way of ending hockey games and I won’t type here pretending I am a purist for the game; truth is I barely watch until the playoffs. I can’t help but feel like this is ending an NBA game with a free throw contest or a game of horse. I don’t think you should change the game for overtime. I’m looking at you college football.

Phil Mickelson Wins the Masters

The weekend started with Tiger and his story of coming back to golf after his self imposed hiatus and it ended with Phil kissing his wife whom herself was making her return to the golf course after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

From my point of view, both were pretty amazing. I want to be one of those guys who says Tiger’s personal life doesn’t matter to me but I can’t say that in one breath and then talk about what a great story Phil’s personal life is. It would be hypercritical for me to do both. So I will leave it at this, both men hit some amazing shots (Tiger’s shot at 9 on Thursday was probably the best shot I ever seen) and I look forward to these two battling for the coming years.

There also was some good showing by young guys (and older guys – Tom Watson still amazes me). Checking out Twitter this morning I was reminded while even though I make fun of athletes and their use of it, it can be a great medium for reaching out to fans (and vice versa).

Ianjamespoulter

(Ian Poulter)

Morning all, sitting in bed reading emails from last week, a bit disappointed with the result, but I guess you learn from mistakes made. On 1:31 PM Apr 12th 2010 from Twittelator

Here we have Ian Poulter who by all accounts had a great masters tweeting out to his fans and showing his disappointment. You could never have this type of closeness with ESPN or a CBS interview.

Thanks for the good show and reminding us how great golf can be.

Darnell Dockett may be my favorite person that The Finger Wag follows. The dude is flat out hilarious and on top of that he knows his meals. Check him out (@ddockett) he tweets his meals, his parties, everything. Including the lady who is capturing his heart only after she captured all of ours.

Yes that’s right, America’s Rose the one and only – Oprah

Here are some of his professions of love:

ddockett

(DARNELL DOCKETT)

I'm going to bed, I'm tired of watching ESPN I'm just gonna watch the RE-RUNS of @Oprah show !! My little chocolate love bug! *wink* TTYL On 6:35 AM Apr 8th 2010 from UberTwitter

ddockett

(DARNELL DOCKETT)

@Oprah hi babe how are u doing my chocolate Milk dud! On 3:35 AM Apr 9th 2010 from UberTwitter in reply to Oprah Winfrey

ddockett

(DARNELL DOCKETT)

@Oprah If loooooooving u is wrrooooong I don't wannnna be right! *WINK* http://tweetphoto.com/17458397 On 3:02 AM Apr 7th 2010 from UberTwitter in reply to Oprah Winfrey

ddockett

(DARNELL DOCKETT)

@Oprah hey babe I think I left my cleats in ur trunk, call me when u out ur mtg! And what we eating for dinner tonight? On 6:57 PM Apr 7th 2010 from UberTwitter in reply to Oprah Winfrey

Enjoy your Saturday night kids, I am off

Have you seen the new Nike commercial for Tiger at the Master’s?  If you haven’t here it is:

It’s probably the best piece of advertising in a long while.  You may not agree with it but I have seen this commercial around 1,000 times this morning.  It was on Good Morning America, ESPN, CNN, I think I even saw it on youporn.

You may ask why Nike would chance this by getting in bed with Tiger?  Why would Nike worship Tiger?  Why would Nike clean the dung off Tiger’s shoes?!?  THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR THAT’S WHY!!!

Sorry I just broke into the million dollar man there.

Apparently I am not the only one though…

ro72

(Roman Oben)

Finally saw #Nike #Tiger commercial. Too bad Earl can't speak for himself. I guess "everyone has a price"! *Ted Dibiase referece* On 12:15 PM Apr 8th 2010 from UberTwitter

Just for fun here some Million Dollar Man: