Daily Archives: April 26, 2012

Apr 26 2012

Will Fans Be The Downfall Of Twitter In Sports?

After reading the tweet from Dan Wolken, I had a blog idea. A “cranky” media post. There were more tweets to work with from Mr. Wolken:

Gold! Cranky media puffing up “their” opinion as the standard. If a “fan” were to tweet something like that, media would blast him/her for their arrogance. I usually blast fans for their tweets but this time I was going to take on media tweets.

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Before I had time to organize my thoughts on it, I stumbled across a fan tweet to New Orleans Saints’ running back, Mark Ingram.

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That brought to mind a story about fans last night.

In case you missed it, the NHL playoff first round playoff series between the Washington Capitals and the Boston Bruins took place last night. Not just satisfied with game 7 but a game 7 OVERTIME.

In overtime, the Capitals’ Joel Ward scored the game-winner. Should be nothing more to the story other than the Caps win and the defending champ, Boston Bruins, are out. Simple.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

In a story from Black Sports Online, documentation of racially charged tweets have become the story.

Joel Ward’s response (via USA Today)

“I’m definitely getting a lot of support,” Ward said. “There have been a lot of Boston fans who have supported me, which is very cool to see. No hard feelings from me. This is a game.”

Nothing but class from Joel Ward.

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While my original idea for this post is valid, it pales in comparison to the Ward story. We can ask why. Why would fans…scratch that….people, in general, feel the need to tweet such vile?

Because they can:

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My thoughts: I’d like to think that fans who sent those racist tweets about Joel Ward are the minority. Fans, and media, are free to give their opinion on anything. Others are free to respond however they see fit. But, when fans “abuse” Twitter in this manner, I am disheartened.

Disheartened because Twitter is such a valuable tool for the fans. The wealth of information and free-flowing conversation on it is unparalleled. Fans have access to media like never before. And that, is what I value most about it. Some fans value the athlete access, I value the media access.

My fear is that fan behavior will continue in a downward spiral like this causing media and athletes to slowly, slowly pull away from Twitter. It may not be an immediate withdrawal. There would need to be another platform for media and athletes to stream to. Or perhaps an application with more stringent access requirements.

And the free-flowing sports conversation would eventually be gone.

Don’t believe me? 

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