Social media beneficial?

In a time where social media is a necessity for players to get in touch with the public, athletes rely on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to get in touch with family, friends, and fans. The social media is viewed in many different ways and can be either used for benefit or destruction of a player.

Most athletes rely on social media sites for their boost their careers with sponsorships, teams, and fans. For example Orlando Magic’s All-Star center Dwight Howard has 2 million Facebook likes and more than 2.5 million followers on Twitter even though he does not have an NBA championship ring.

Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson was fined $213,000 for making homophobic remarks on Twitter.

The practice of using social media to bring fame and popularity has spread all over the world and is used now more than ever. The problem is that athletes do not know how to leverage the social media. For some players this is a very hard task because it has developed into a habit. Social media sites are easy to use and fast which tempts athletes to use them. If players don’t find some self-control with social media we may see many more fines.

Athletes tweet away

Credit to Morpurgo

There are plenty of examples of athletes getting into trouble on social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. Most of the time, an artificial, insincere apology follows. Then, the story fades away into the bellows of the past within the next couple of days. As more athletes get into trouble over what they say, more coaches and agents are banning their players from Twitter or filtering what they post.
 

Athletes have said stupid things on Twitter since it first became popular, and they will continue to say such things on Twitter until it fades away (if it ever does). A lot of the time, they do not realize that seconds after they post something on Twitter, thousands of fans can see it and it could be damaging to their reputation or image.

Stupid or insulting things posted on Twitter rarely damage a professional athlete’s image permanently. When an athlete posts something offensive on a social media site, all they have to do is say “Sorry” with an explanation afterward which mostly consist of something like “I wasn’t thinking” or “I realize now that what I said could have been offensive”. After that happens, most of the time the story is over and everyone is forgiven.


With all the players who have gotten fined for what they tweet, there has only been one well-known instance of someone losing their job. That person is Larry Johnson, former Pro-Bowl running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. After lashing out at one of his coaches and insulting one of his fans with a gay slur, he was released from the team after 32,000 fans signed a petition asking the Chiefs to fire him. No amount of apologies could have gotten him out of that situation.


Social media rarely has a permanent, negative effect on an athlete’s image. If anything, it draws more publicity to them and makes them have even more followers because everyone wants to see their post.

Has social media affected professional sports?

Social media has affected professional sports throughout the world because of its speed and availability. Athletes and even news reporters find out about new important information right away when somebody posts the data or tweets it. Social media also allows the strengthen bonds between fans and athletes. Social Media also had a negative impact on players. Social media is allowing athletes to exercise their “freedom of speech”. Not only that, but with athletes referring to some ill conceived idea about other team members and athletes, consequences are to be had.

There have been many incidents where team members find out what coaches want to do with the athlete before they do. On December 9th, the Oakland Athletics and the Arizona Diamondbacks completed a huge trade. In total, five players changed teams including left handed pitcher Craig Breslow, who was sent to the Diamondbacks. Breslow says that he was able to get his information about his trade through Twitter. Breslow tweeted, “I can no longer denounce the relevance of Twitter. It broke the story of my trade ... to me.” Although Breslow didn’t appreciate his trade being announced publicly before it was to him, he replied with thank-yous to all the people that wished him good luck on the Diamondbacks.

Social media such as Facebook and Twitter have ruined many careers for athletes. Athletes may tweet or post quotes or ideas that may sound correct to them but to the readers ear it may not. Also athletes may want to express something, but in reality it may be wrong. One athlete that fell into the hole of Twitter was Larry Johnson, who was a starting NFL running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. Nowadays, he is out of work after being released by the Redskins. He was released because of his poor play and his continued use of gay slurs on Twitter. Now look where that has brought him.

Social media is allowing us to receive information right away. Athletes do not realize information that is released into the Internet is never erasable. Many athletes have made that mistake in sports and have suffered greatly.