Just a quick note that ESPN’s Bill Simmons is now on Twitter. Simmons, the “Sports Guy,” is one of ESPN’s most popular columnists. He writes that he’s giving Twitter a “test run for a few weeks” after being impressed with the NFL Draft coverage on the site last weekend. Many sports fans have been waiting for Simmons, one of their favorite writers, to join Twitter. Now that Simmons has joined, do you think he will stay?

Sportsin140.com has been featured in today’s edition of the Seattle Times in an article entitled “Sports go mad for online pastime Twitter” by Jayda Evans. If you’re a fan from the Pacific Northwest, welcome!

Until just a few days ago, San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson maintained a Twitter account, @BrianWilson38. Wilson abruptly closed his account after several of his tweets were published in the media and contributed to a small controversy. Let’s take a closer look at what happened and try to determine how this situation affects athletes on Twitter.

Brian Wilson was only one of a handful of active Major League players with Twitter accounts. Wilson used his account to post random thoughts and observations as thousands of other Twitterers do on a daily basis. But Brian Wilson is a public figure–and therefore subject to a different set of rules regarding the content he posts publicly on a public website. The story of Brian Wilson’s Twitter drama was first reported on Yahoo’s “Big League Stew” baseball blog.

Last weekend, Wilson wrote a series of tweets after a Giants game in Arizona. It seems Wilson and some teammates went to a Scottsdale bar and encountered some “over aggressive males.” The next day an ineffective Wilson blew the save in the day game against the Diamondbacks.

Wilson has a late night and then struggles during a game the next day. Could it be just a pure coincidence? It’s possible, although San Francisco Chronicle beat writer Henry Schulman openly ponders the possibilities as part of a blog post in which he notes that “fans notice this stuff.”

The next day, Schulman noted that Wilson deleted all of his tweets and replaced them with a single tweet that read “Warning- do not take my twitters seriously, they are made up stories that reflect my humor.” Schulman and Wilson had a conversation about Schulman’s post about Wilson’s use of Twitter and Wilson deleted his account at some point following that conversation.

What can we learn from this situation? We are once again reminded that professional athletes are public figures and, as such, are subject to a different set of rules than the rest of us. Twitter is a public website and, save for a small percentage of users, nearly all Twitter accounts and tweets are available to the general public, members of the media and all. Professional athletes know their fans are always watching (and reading) and sometimes this can get them in trouble. I don’t personally think this particular controversy really had any legs but obviously it affected Wilson enough to cause him to delete his account.

Twitter is all about access. We are reminded yet again that “all access” is not always a good thing. What do you think? Was Henry Schulman just doing his job? Did Brian Wilson overreact? What implications  does this situation present for athletes on Twitter? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk is one of the most popular athletes on Twitter. Hawk has over 516,000 followers, an impressive figure given that he only joined Twitter a few months ago. Today Hawk is making headlines on CNN.com because of his recent ‘Twitter Treasure Hunt.” What was Tony Hawk’s treasury hunt and how did it spread to cities across the country and around the world?

In an interview with CNN.com I-Reporter Chris Morrow, Hawk says it enjoys using Twitter because it allows for real-time access. “It’s instantaneous,” Hawk says. “You want to engage people and you want to keep it interactive.”

Hawk says he decided to take that interaction to the next level by giving away skateboards to fans and Twitter followers. “I thought it’d be fun to just stash skateboards all over the place and tweet out their locations and see how fast they get uncovered” Hawk says. Hawk says he began hiding skateboards in locations near his California home but quickly decided to expand the treasure hunt to a much larger scale.

Hawk tells CNN.com’s Morrow that he sent skateboards to friends in cities across the country and even around the world. Tony Hawk’s “Twitter Treasure Hunt” included cities as far away as Brisbane, Australia and Dublin, Ireland. “[Twitter] is direct access to fans and people interested in what you’re doing and I’m doing my best” Hawk says.

Here are some Twitter accounts to follow during the weekend’s NFL Draft.

Please click here to follow us on Twitter!

NFL
NFL – @NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell – @NFLCommish
Spokesman Greg Aiello – @GregAiello

NFL Teams
Atlanta Falcons – @Atlanta_Falcons
Baltimore Ravens – @1WinningDrive
Carolina Panthers – @PantherTalk
Cincinnati Bengals – @CinBengalsNFL
Houston Texans – @theTexans
Miami Dolphins – @MiamiDolphins
New England Patriots – @realpatriots
New York Jets – @NYJets
San Diego Chargers – @Chargers
Seattle Seahawks – @Seahawksdotcom
Tennessee Titans – @TennesseeTitans

Draft Eligible Players
Everette Brown, FSU – @EveretteBrown
Don Carey III, Norfolk State – @DonCarey
Kevin Grant, Akron State – @KGtheMachine
Jake Ingram, Hawaii – @Jake_Ingram_LS
Rashad Jennings, Liberty – @RashadJennings
Knowshon Moreno, Georgia – @KnowshonMoreno
Mark Sanchez, USC – @Mark_Sanchez
DeAngelo Smith, Cincinnati – @Deangelo6
Jason Williams, Western Illinois – @jwill6

ESPN
ESPN – @ESPN
SportsCenter – @SportsCenter
Chris Mortensen – @Mort2U
Merril Hoge – @MerrilHoge
Mike and Mike in the Morning: @GreenyandGolic

Sports Illustrated
Peter King – @SI_PeterKing

NFL Network
Rich Eisen – @RichEisen
Jamie Dukes – @JamieDukes

Los Angeles Times
Sam Farmer – @LATimesFarmer

Fox Sports
Ed Thompson – @Ed_Thompson

Beat Writers
Greg Bedard, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, @Greg_A_Bedard
Mark Bradley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, @MarkBradleyAJC
Rich Hofmann, Philadelphia Daily News, @TheIdleRich
Stephen Holder, St. Petersburg Times, @HolderStephen
Matt Maiocco, Press Democrat, @mattmaiocco
Brendan Prunty, Star-Ledger, @BrendanPrunty
Joe Reedy, Cincinnati Enquirer, @JoeReedy