I am a pretty big NFL fan. Have been all of my life. Why? Because the product is fun for me. The product of football that is. Anything else about the drama and the thoughts of players is something I see little to no value in unless there is a personal interest in the player. Personal opinion I know but hey I think we can still have those in the US for at least today.

I read a post last week over at MediaPost where the author wondered out loud why NFL players aren’t allowed to tweet during games and how terrible that is. I let it go as just being dumb (though I did comment on the post) but with the NFL season just around the corner I needed to say something more. Just what you needed, right?

Professional sports leagues focus on the weirdest things when they start cracking down on misbehavior. For example, the NFL doesn’t seem to particularly mind players abusing steroids (the punishment for failing a steroid drug test is a four-game suspension — basically a slap on the wrist)… but NFL players who use social media during a game are liable for a $25,000 fine. This is part of a communications blackout which decrees players may not use cell phones, electronic devices, or social media including Twitter or Facebook within 90 minutes of kickoff.

While I am not going to get into the whole steroids thing (personally, though, I feel that if a guy wants to shorten his life to play football a little longer and make more money than he could even come close to in the real world then so be it) I do have something to say about people who feel the need to know everything at every moment and then want to monetize it all.

How about this. When I watch football, I watch the game. Part of the fun is NOT knowing exactly what is going on in between plays. These guys do something different than the rest of the world and I like the fact that some of it remains unknown. I think that not knowing is often better than knowing. Maybe that’s just me.

As for this next statement, this person obviously has never played a down of organized football in his life because if he did he would know just how ignorant this sounds.

Maybe someone can explain this policy to me. I can understand banning some kinds of communication during the time around games — specifically, anything which could be used to receive last-minute tips about the opposing team’s plays. But I can’t guess what the NFL hopes to accomplish by preventing players from disseminating their own content, provided of course it doesn’t fall in the category of game-sensitive information.

Huh? Look I know football is not rocket science. During a game however you need to concentrate and understand what is happening so you can make adjustments on the fly. if your offense can’t meet because the QB has to tweet then the game is compromised. It’s just a bad idea.

Then there is this one

The policy strikes me as counter-productive because allowing players to use social media during games could be a potential gold mine in terms of driving and tracking viewer engagement. Frankly, the only time athletes really have anything interesting to say is probably during the game, when they’re sitting on the sidelines talking amongst themselves — but the viewer at home usually isn’t privy to their bench chatter (unless they happen to read lips).

Listen people of the social media industry. STOP TRYING TO MONETIZE EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY! Please stop! It’s just annoying.

So there isn’t much else to say. I am a big fan of the NFL and if there was ever a business that has little trouble making money it’s this one. The last thing we need to do is hear from more guys like Chad Ochocinco who are as enamored with themselves as many in the social media industry are. Ol’ Chad is just that…..old. His routine is old and played out. He is a caricature of a celebrity because he has nothing of value to add to anything so why would we need to hear MORE of his like?

So let’s leave the tweets and the like to the in between game realm. There is plenty of opportunity for something stupid to happen then. Let’s keep the game as the game for the time it is played. It’s nice to actually step away from all the social media stuff and just have fun. Oh that’s right, I forgot, it’s not fun these days unless you “share” it in some way. Please! No one cares about you or me that much either.

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