The Twitter League … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

It has become part of the NFL world. In 140 characters or less, NFL players, coaches, administrators and even owners are communicating via Twitter.

By definition from Webster’s Dictionary, twitter means a short burst of inconsequential information and chirps from a group of birds. That’s exactly what Twitter has become – a maximum of 140 characters about information that’s 99.9 percent inconsequential. When an event happens, no matter how big or small, the increase in Twitter traffic is like a flock of birds sitting in a tree chattering at each other.

It’s part of the so-called social media. Twitter began in July 2006 and in five years has now reached an estimated 200 million users that generate 190 million tweets per day. The Harvard Business School has studied the Twitter craze and concluded that there is a hardcore group of active users, with 10 percent of the Twitter account holders creating 86 percent of the activity.

That’s certainly true within the Chiefs family. A few players are very active users, guys like DL Shaun Smith (10,625 tweets) and S Eric Berry (8,540 tweets). Others are sometimes tweeting like RB Jamaal Charles (2,762 tweets) and CB Brandon Flowers (2,762 tweets). More than a handful of players are not on Twitter at all, like QB Matt Cassel, LB Mike Vrabel, G Brian Waters and RB Thomas Jones.

Clark Hunt, Scott Pioli and Todd Haley are not twittering, but others in their positions around the league are posting tweets on a regular basis. Seattle coach Pete Carroll is a frequent visitor to Twitter. Denver’s man in charge these days John Elway is on twitter. And there’s Indianapolis Colts owner Jimmy Irsay, who just yesterday tweeted the following:

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@JimIrsay

Jim Irsay

Last week I went 2 the dentist,he pulled sum teeth n I lost sum blood,I wanna thank u 4 the cards u sent us,my family n I were all choked up

18 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

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By any definition, Twitter has become a phenomenon, and remarkably it does not appear to be driven by those who create fads: teenagers. Rather it’s adults, mostly young, but some like the 52-year old Irsay are all over the landscape of Twitter.

That includes the Kansas City Chiefs. In what is now a 16-week NFL lockout, one of the few ways you can get any sort of perspective on the Chiefs players is through Twitter. At times it’s easy to understand what the player is saying:

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@Stuntman1429

Eric Berry

I’m in town…my brothers leave town…I leave town…my brothers r n town…I guess that’s how it is wit family full of athletes.

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Then there are other tweets from say Flowers that need a modern urban/Twitter dictionary to provide interpretation:

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@BFlowers24

Brandon Flowers

@BCarr39 bro u gotta blame the homie T haha I ain’t even know the pics was down there bro…lmaooo..we except u tho bro don’t trip

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There’s no question there are examples where Twitter has been very important for a moment of time. After the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, tweets were the most successful form of communication, when damaged phone lines and cell towers made phone calls impossible. Tweets are transmitted on a lower bandwidth than a cell phone call and can still be successful when calls can’t make it through.

But for the most part, the land of Twitter has been taken over by the sports and entertainment world and performers in all those areas. Earlier this year, certifiable mad man Charlie Sheen registered a new Twitter account and he had one million followers in 25 hours. Right now the Twitter account with the most followers is singer Lady Gaga with 11,250,245 people on line. Singer Justin Bieber is chasing her with 10,657,008 followers. In the sports world, the leader earlier this year was Shaquille O’Neal with 3,564,335 followers.

As with anything involving young, immature personalities with well-fed egos, sometimes they step on their Twitter. Just in the last week it happened with C.J. Johnson, a soon to be freshman linebacker at the University of Mississippi. First, Johnson closed down his Facebook page when he received some bad messages from Mississippi State fans.

He moved his social media comments to Twitter, posting a host of off-color, sexually graphic and nonsensical tweets. After the posts were repeated on the Sports by Brooks website, Johnson swore off his Twitter account.

Not all player tweets are without interest or merit. This week, Arizona Cardinals DL Darnell Dockett’s posted a series of tweets during an encounter with police who pulled him over in his Cadillac Escalade. Dockett did not tweet where this incident took place, but he eventually was allowed to leave without receiving a ticket after he refused the police request to search his car. “There R 3police cars and they are talking! I don’t see A search warrant they won’t see inside this Escalade! I got all day hope they don’t!” Dockett tweeted at one point.

Earlier this year, Pittsburgh RB Rashard Mendenhall got himself in trouble with Twitter comments about the death of Osama bin Laden. “What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…” tweeted Mendenhall.

Controversy came two years ago in Kansas City via Twitter when RB Larry Johnson had some insults for the local media and Todd Haley his head coach. That eventually hastened his exit from the team and the city.

So what does it all mean? Heaven knows, but athletes now have an outlet for their own voices instead of relying on public relations types and the media to relay their thoughts. Sometimes that’s good; sometimes not so much. Something that inexperienced players learn very quickly is that Twitter has no boundaries. It’s not held within city limits, state borders, or even a single hemisphere. A tweet never really goes away.

It recalls the old Mark Twain line about “better to be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”

If Twain was alive today he would likely tweet: “better to be thought a fool than to tweet without thought and remove all doubt.”

And, he’d still have 60 characters left.

CHIEFS LOCKER ROOM ON TWITTER

It’s a lot faster to identify the players on the Chiefs roster that don’t Twitter, than those that do. QB Matt Cassel, LG Brian Waters, C Casey Wiegmann, OLB Tamba Hali, ILB Jovan Belcher, DE Tyson Jackson, OLB Mike Vrabel, RB Thomas Jones, QB Brodie Croyle – none can be found with a legitimate account on Twitter. No active account was found for draft choices C/G Rodney Hudson, LB Justin Houston and QB Ricky Stanzi.

Here’s what we could find on the rest of the locker room. They are listed in the number of followers for their Twitter page.