Twitter Drama Strikes the Jets

As you’ve heard by now, Twitter is slowly destroying professional (and college!) sports as we know it. Athletes are doing previously unheard-of things such as speaking their minds and talking trash, which, to the best of our knowledge, in no way existed before micro-blogging came along. The latest example: Jets receiver David Clowney, who was inactive for the team’s game against the Titans because of messages he tweeted the previous Sunday.

Let’s take a look at some of the things Clowney said after the Jets’ victory over New England:


1 play in the 1st Half, 4 plays in the 2nd half … A bit disappointed about my playing time but very happy and satisfied about the win.

Just time to work harder for next week.

My team always comes first so I’m just keep grinding …And we gonna keep winning.

Now, we get that Rex Ryan’s all about the team and not the individual, and that even the ultimate players’ coach has to have some limits. But, short of saying nothing at all, this seems like the most diplomatic way possible to express his thoughts on the game. We have to wonder if Ryan, who admits he’s “not a big Twitter guy,” would have reacted the same way if Clowney had said those exact words, in that exact context, to a TV or newspaper reporter. We’re honestly not sure.

At least there’s a happy ending. Ryan admitted he wanted to see how Clowney would react to his benching, and the speedy wide receiver handled it well. Ryan said that he “was phenomenal in preparation” and that he’d probably be naming him the scout team player of the week. Though we could have told you he’d work hard. Clowney told us, and the rest of the Internet, himself. On Twitter.

No Clowney around: Ryan benched David for tweet [NYP]

Twitter Drama Strikes the Jets