For every Chad Ochocinco, who has nearly two million Twitter followers and has emerged as what you might call a social media superhero, there are several Twitter horror stories concerning athletes.
↵Ask Pittsburgh's Rashard Mendenhall. Or Steve Johnson of the Buffalo Bills. Or other athletes who have said regrettable things on Twitter. Or had regrettable things said to them by followers, who are supposedly their fans.
↵I cam across a story this morning noting that New York Mets catcher Josh Thole, tired of the abuse he was hearing from followers, has deleted his Twitter account.
↵↵↵"I thought this was supposed to be fun," Thole said. "They’re ruthless on there."
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I love Twitter as a tool for getting news out quickly, and for finding it quickly. Athletes, though, are finding that while Twitter can be fun it also has plenty of pitfalls for them. Both in terms of what they might send out to the world before thinking it through, and opening up another avenue for overzealous fans to spew venom in their direction.
↵Thole did the right thing. As much as I enjoy what some athletes have to say on Twitter, there are probably a lot of other guys who should do the same thing.
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