Athletes need tech education

This past week a Texas Tech football player was suspended from the team for something you would never have heard of 10 years ago: posting a resentful comment about his head coach on his ‘Twitter’ account.

The ‘tweet’ went something like this: “Wondering why I’m still in this meeting room when the head coach can’t even be on time to his own meeting.”

I will admit, I laughed a little at first, but then I started to think about the casual disregard shown by the player, along with his lack of respect for coaches and teammates.

It seems as if some athletes are using their Twitter accounts to post their personal inner thoughts when, in reality, these feelings may be best kept private.

Regardless of how the Texas Tech player felt at the time, I am curious as to what made him feel like he needed to vent his frustrations for the entire world to see?

Social networking seems to have gotten a bit out of hand and athletes are taking advantage of their newfound ability to “reach out” to their fans, whether we really care or not.

This past summer, Miami Heat forward, Michael Beasley told the entire world of his suicidal thoughts saying, “Feelin like it’s not worth livin,” via his Twitter account.

Shortly thereafter, Beasley made a stint in some kind of rehab, trying to catch his life up to the fast-paced NBA routine.

In a quote featured in the Canadian Press, Beasley had this to say about his current status in social networking, “I can definitely say, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, any social network I'm pretty much done with…I put my career and my livelihood in jeopardy.”

Given that Beasley is young, and relatively inexperienced in terms of coping with the NBA life, a disaster like this still could have been avoided.

Athletes are finding new opportunities in Facebook and Twitter to market themselves as not only athletes, but people as well.

They are taking control of something that was once left for sports agents and public relations, and using their own charismatic, “e-skills” to capture new audiences.

Part of me thinks that for some of these athletes, the goal is just to make another dollar and inflate their own egos.

Instances like Washington Redskins rookie Robert Henson fuel my fire.

Henson, after being booed along with the rest of his team while playing the St. Louis Rams, felt it was necessary to call the Rams’ fans “dim wits,” as well as questioning how anyone working 9-5 at McDonalds could know anything about football. Guess where he did this? Twitter.

It has even gotten to the point that Charlie Villanueva of the Milwaukee Bucks felt the need to ‘tweet’ during the half-time of an important game against the Celtics last spring. One would think focusing on beating the defending NBA champions would be a better mindset, but that’s just me.

So where do we go from here?

The fact is, social networking sites such as Twitter, if used in the correct way, allow athletes to make a positive impact not only on their own public image, but that of their respective sports and teams.

Only when these websites are used inappropriately and in poor judgment do athletes make me cringe, almost feeling embarrassed for them. Almost.

The king of Twitter himself, “The Big Tweet,” Shaquille O’Neal, has used his account to post funny comments and locations of where he will be at a certain time, giving fans a chance to personally interact with the goofy NBA superstar.

Professional and amateur organizations are starting to ban the use of these social networking sites, regardless of if the athletes use these websites in a responsible manner.

I don’t think that this is the answer.

History has shown that a ban of something popular doesn’t typically work.

What leagues like the NBA, NFL and MLB need to do is educate their players. That’s how simple it is.

If these athletes know the most mature and intelligent way to go about using these sites to their advantage, then everyone benefits.

So rather than take the easy way out, let's educate and focus ourselves on positive uses of these social tools, and encourage athletes to avoid telling us what they are thinking EVERY second of the day.