Here’s the Outside the Lines segment on athletes on Twitter in case you missed it.

Twitter has been the talk of the NFL this week.

On Monday the New York Times wrote an article entitled “The NFL has identified the enemy and It Is Twitter.” In this brief article, author Judy Battista wrote that “paranoia” had gripped the league’s clubs as they grappled with how to handle Twitter, the exploding-in-popularity-amongst-players social networking site.

On Tuesday ESPN reported that the San Diego Chargers had fined cornerback Antonio Cromartie, an avid Twitterer, $2,500 for a tweet in which he criticized the food at the team’s training camp.

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With talk of paranoia in NFL front offices across the country, many fans wondered aloud about the NFL’s Twitter policy. We contacted NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy for clarification on the league’s stance on Twitter.

“[The NFL has] embraced Twitter,” McCarthy said. “Our NFL account has 770k+ followers, NFL Network’s Rich Eisen has 32k, and heck, even my own NFLprguy account has 5,700 followers. When done properly, it’s a tremendous opportunity to talk with and listen to fans.”

“Clubs, like any other company in America, do not want to put themselves at a competitive disadvantage by having players revealing strategy via their tweets. They also don’t want their players providing virtual chalkboard material to their opponents. This is comparable to another other company monitoring what its employees say publicly through any medium to ensure it is consistent with company policy.”

“Setting ground rules for news media coverage of practice is the responsibility of the clubs,” McCarthy said, “but our office provided recommended best practices for clubs to consider regarding real-time reporting (tweeting and texting) from training camp practices open to the public. 22 teams permit some reporting via tweets and texts from training camp practices open to the public. We recommended that clubs allow limited live reporting from open-to-the-public training camp practices subject to guidelines set by clubs on the reporting of strategy.”

McCarthy then reiterated the longstanding league policy prohibiting team personnel from using cell phones and other electronic devices on game day. “[These] rules…[apply] to the sidelines, coaches’ booths and locker rooms from the start of pregame warm-ups through the end of the game, including halftime. That would prohibit the use of Twitter, Facebook and similar social networking sites during that period of time by coaches, players, and other club personnel on the sidelines, in coaches’ booths and locker rooms. We are working on a broader policy that would apply to the use of social media sites in general on the day of a game.”

Does reading McCarthy’s comments change your mind about the NFL on Twitter? Why or why not?

I will be appearing on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” this Sunday at 9 AM on ESPN. The piece will cover athletes and the sports industry on Twitter. Please tune in!

Here is a preview:

Today is the MLB trading deadline. Fans expecting a flurry of moves this morning and afternoon leading up to the 4 PM deadline can turn to MLB Network and a MLB.com simulcast for all the latest information and, for the first time, your tweets will appear both on MLB Network and the simulcast.

MLB Network will air a live deadline deals special from 11 AM to 1 AM today. MLB.com will air a simulcast from 11 AM to 6 PM. During the broadcast, a live stream of fan tweets will appear. Fans are asked to use the hashtag #mlbtrades in order to participate.

It is the second time this week that MLB has integrated tweets with live action on its website. Earlier this week MLB debuted a new tweet stream feature in the MLB.tv streaming video application. Fans watching live out-of-market games could bring up a stream of live tweets from fellow fans and baseball insiders. The integration was a success and likely contributed to the integration with live MLB Network coverage today.