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You've probably all seen this by now, but earlier today, Drew Franklin of KSR put up this post about a player on the Chris Early of the Chattanooga Mocs (stats from Statsheet.com). These Twitter comments were made about a month ago by Early, and apparently, it came as unpleasant news to the Mocs head coach, John Shulman. From the Chattanooga blog Mocs Mania!:
Chris Early has been suspended indefinitely for his Twitter comments regarding the year and Coach Shulman.
Honestly, this whole thing frustrates me quite a bit. I'm beginning to really hate Twitter.
When I first read Drew's story, I feared this might happen. I really don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, there is no doubt that Drew was within his rights as a blogger to reveal this information -- it is public and has been out there a while. Not only that, the comments Early made about the head coach are absolutely unethical and indicative of a serious attitude problem that could legitimately be affecting the Mocs team in a negative way.
There is the other side, though -- the potential to get a kid kicked off the basketball team and affect his future. I have a feeling that doesn't feel all that great to Drew right now, and I confess, it makes me uncomfortable as well. At the same time, if this had come from Andy Katz or some Chattanooga reporter, would we even care?
Unfortunately, Twitter is both a boon and a nightmare to athletes. It is like a driver's license -- on the upside, you can go places and do things. On the downside, if you are irresponsible, it can damage and even take your life. At least Twitter has never taken a life that I know of, but it sure has impacted some college careers both positively, negatively, and in the case of Josh Harrellson, both at the same time.
This reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite movies, The Last Boy Scout: "Ain't life a bitch?"
[UPDATE] Ouch. Stay away from Twitter when you're angry. Lesson for the day.