Image via CrunchBase
It’s official, Commissioner Roger Goodell has instantly made the NFL Pro Bowl the most meaningless All-Star game in professional sports! We should crown it now for what it is; the Twitter-Bowl. For the first time ever, players will be permitted to tweet during the game from computers (one on each sideline). It looks like the Twitter Bowl will be a controlled NFL experiment.
At halftime, while coaches and players are working hard to re-adjust elaborate game plans (yeah, right), personal mobile devices can be used to keep those tweets coming. You might be interested to know that during the regular season, NFL policy prohibits player tweets 90 minutes prior to kickoff and not before all their post-game media obligations are fulfilled. This “experiment” is just plain ridiculous.
Recently, I was one of about 10,000 spectators at Tropicana Field for this year’s East-West Shrine Game, and was flabbergasted to see tweets from fans at the game being flashed periodically on the giant scoreboard. These kinds of games tend to be dull, and this one was, yet the tweets just kept being shown. Not only were these the most innocuous nuggets of information, but that was about all the entertainment provided throughout the entire game. I guess the word on this lame amusement plan spread rapidly all the way to the NFL corporate offices.
NFL Pro Bowl Rosters are already diluted without many of the premier players since the game is always scheduled too close to the playoffs/Super Bowl (for example, seven Patriots voted in won’t be there), quarterbacks are protected so much it looks more like flag football, everybody’s wearing those fruity Hawaiian shirts, intentional grounding IS legal, no calls can be challenged, there’s no rushing on punts, PATs and FG attempts, and now this. Where’s T.O. and Ochocinco when we really need them for reality TV?
And, during this Twitter-Bowl, why not also throw in an occasional tweet from that smug, super-agent Drew Rosenhaus to make things really interesting. I can just imagine the line of players at the sideline computer stations rushing to get their in-game tweets to the nation, all the delay of game penalties caused by unfocused players running late onto the field from just tweeting, and extended TV time-outs waiting for tweets to queue up and broadcasters to catch up. OOOOhhhh wonder if Goodell thought of tweet censors? I can tell you one thing for sure—-you’ll have to answer to the wrath of Ray Lewis if you’re a cornerback tweeting when the AFC defense is supposed to be on the field. You know….now I finally DO have a reason to watch.
Follow this link to Tweet Roger Goodell!!
Related articles
- NFL Will Allow Players to Tweet During Pro Bowl (newsy.com)
The NFL certainly understands the power of social media to broadcast their “message” …whatever that message happens to be.
But, you painted a hilarious scenario! The sight of players lining up for their turn on the computer is just too much!! I wonder how many times Vince Lombardi is going to turn over in his grave tonight…??
Twitter Bowl proved to be one on the biggest disappointments I’ve had in my personal sports life! I can understand that you don’t want to get players unnecessarily hurt, but this is football. I got a little tired of seeing both team’s defensive lines just stand in position.
But, it wasn’t until a received a text from a friend that it really began to bother me. She said this looks like a touch football game! What is the NFL trying to do with this game? They certainly don’t want to make it competitive! So, why even go through the motions? This is a sham! Blow it up!
If you want to create a social event for the league’s best, throw them a party and put it on TV. But, please don’t offend real football fans with this type of fiasco!!