Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson ignited a firestorm in the local and national media late Sunday when he publicly criticized head coach Todd Haley on Twitter following the Chiefs’ 37-7 loss to the San Diego Chargers.
Johnson, who tweets under the name @ToonIcon, criticized Haley in a series of tweets first reported by Chiefs bloggers late Sunday and later by Yahoo Sports columnist Charles Robinson early Monday.
According to the Yahoo Sports report Robinson filed early Monday, Johnson wrote:
“My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans”. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn”
Later Johnson engaged angry Chiefs fans and even used a homophobic slur while responding to one fan. Johnson’s final tweet of the night taunted fans and reminded them that “u don’t stop my checks” according to media reports. At some point following Sunday’s exchange, Johnson made his Twitter account private.
Update 10/28 - ESPN is reporting that the Chiefs have suspended Johnson from the team for two weeks.
Update 11/9 – The Kansas City Chiefs have released Johnson in part due to his comments on Twitter.
Outspoken Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco is in the headlines again. This time, though, the headlines aren’t about him.
Less than a month after the debut of his eponymous iPhone application, Ochocinco announced the “Ochocinco News Network” on Twitter this week.
Ochocinco said he intends to break NFL news via Twitter by contacting friends around the league for news about their teams. While many beat writers and reporters post tweets about the teams they cover, Ochocinco’s proposal may be the first time a player has sought to break news through personal contacts.
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love made headlines in June when he broke the news that head coach Kevin McHale would not return this season. ESPN and other media outlets reported on Love’s tweet and the Timberwolves issued a formal statement announcing McHale’s departure a short time later.
Come NFL Sunday do you think Ochocinco will be scooping the major media or is this just another card in the Ochocinco entertainment deck? What do you think?
My friend Megan Hueter from Women Talk Sports informed me that this evening at 8 PM EDT the University of Minnesota will host–and stream online–a panel discussion on the impact of social media on women’s sports.
The discussion, entitled “Facing Off Over Facebook: The Impact of Social Media on Women’s Sports,” features Penn State University Associate Professor of Journalism and Associate Director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism Marie Hardin, Minneapolis Star Tribune sportswriter Rachel Blount and three-time US Olympic gold medalist hockey player Angela Ruggiero.
Here’s a description of the topic from the University of Minnesota website:
Over the past 30 years, scholars have documented numerous ways in which traditional sport media marginalize and sexualize female athletes. Into this vast—and influential— media landscape appears the recent and exponential explosion of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Will this technological paradigm shift challenge or reproduce the ways in which female athletes are traditionally portrayed in mainstream sport media? Will the unprecedented popularity of social media—and the alternative “ways of knowing” it provides to traditional media—fundamentally alter how we view women’s sports? Panelists with diverse experiences and perspectives will “face off” and take on these important and largely unexplored questions as we move into the Age of New Media.
Click here to watch a live stream of the discussion tonight on the University of Minnesota website. An archive of the broadcast will likely be available in a few days.
This week sports writer David Biderman of the Wall Street Journal profiled Sportsin140.com in an article about athletes and the sports industry on Twitter. Check it out!
