As the 24-hour news cycle churns through empty injury reports, mundane coaching signings and Tim Tebow's golfing schedule, one story stood out to me: the announcement that the NFL is allowing players to tweet during the Pro Bowl. Stop the press! Whoever thought such a commitment - one that has little to do with the clanging of helmets on the field - would stir so much web ink? Further still, who might have anything constructive to say after said clanging?
Some valid points have already been raised about the insincerity and oddity of players tweeting during a pro football game, especially on Mashable and Shutdown Corner, while some folks consider it just harmless fun. As potentially entertaining or intriguing or awkward as it may be for Tweeters and yes, the Twitterati, to chat with the sport's elite, I wonder whether this really adds anything to the event for genuine fans? I'm certainly more excited to see Cam Newton perform his duck and weave, then spin and hoist, than I am to get his view on the best sandwich at Honolulu's Cheeseburger in Paradise? (Side note to Cam: I like the Beach Burger, any thoughts?)
By adopting this strategy, a move that flies in the face of everything Commissioner Roger Goodell has ever enforced, it feels like the NFL is wanting show its pearly whites and spread a little cheer, more like the rather sociable NBA and Major League Baseball whose employees are much easier to personalize - largely because you can see their faces.
In this regard it's not a crazy idea, just a little forced, like a Rex Ryan grin at a post-game presser.
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