One of the greatest advantages to having the Internet at our fingertips at all times of the day is the ability to stay in touch with friends and family. And now with the advent of Twitter, everyday people have a legitimate way of contacting with their favorite celebrities and athletes.
For example, because of Twitter, I'm now very close friends with Kanye West and Conan O'Brien. Well, not really. But it's fun to think so because I send them a tweet every now and then.
That communication goes both ways. Now these celebrities and athletes have an unfiltered form of getting their message out.
This past weekend during the much-vaunted NFC Championship game between the Packers and Bears, Jay Cutler suffered a grade-II tear of his MCL and while he tried to play with the injury for the first offensive series of the 3rd quarter, the medical staff advised him to sit out the rest of the game. According to head coach Lovie Smith, Cutler wanted to come back. But he didn't. And while the hopes of the 2010 Bears seemed to get more and more desperate with Todd Collins and Caleb Hanie under center, Cutler sat on the bench, occasionally going on a stationary bike, but mostly looking despondent with the patented Cutler Face (see: above).
Fans were upset. He didn't look hurt, so why wasn't he coming back in? Without knowing the full extent of his injuries, people went on Twitter to blast Cutler, hoping that he somehow would see the outpouring of hate and get his ass back in the game.
But what made this situation interesting was that among the people blasting Cutler were current NFL players. Darnell Dockett. Derrick Brooks. Maurice Jones-Drew (incidentally, with his team's playoff fate dependent on winning their final two games of the regular season, sat out with injury).
How often do athletes cry foul when the media jumps on them without fully knowing the facts? Too often. And here we are with the Cutler situation-- with the ability for athletes to play faux-journalists with Twitter, they do the exact same thing. Talk about a double-standard.
Jones-Drew has since cited his tweet as a "joke." Whatever. If you have a tool like Twitter and choose to use it like that, beware of the consequences.
The Internet has give a voice to fans and players alike. And what pisses off players is being practiced by the players themselves. Score one for sports journalists.
(And as a quick aside, I too jumped down Cutler's throat. But it wasn't for not coming back. It was for being a terrible leader for the team. If you're one of four Bears to wear a "C" captaincy patch on your jersey, you better act like a leader. Pouting on the sidelines with ZERO energy is not the way to help your team if you can't do it on the field. Regardless of the fallout that comes from this, Cutler will never be looked at the same way.)
Maybe this is good thing, maybe Cutler will come back next season (if there is a next season) with and fire and anger in his belly. When your heart is questioned, the only way to eliminate those rumblings is to perform at a higher level than you ever have.
ReplyDeleteFantastic post, Justin. Twitter provides people with an instant and usually uncensored outlet for their first impressions and unrefined thoughts. And, as you point out, it is providing such a forum for both fans and players alike. I'm just glad that most teams now prohibit players from tweeting from the sidelines. Otherwise, who knows how many Bears players might have been on their smart phones in the 3rd quarter tweeting about how pissed they were at Cutler (and, of course, Collins).
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