14 DAY TRIAL // The NFL (National Football League) is worldwide recognized as having one of the most harsh internal set of player conduct rules of all sports. Recently, an NFL official has stated on NFL Total Access, a show on the league's official TV channel, that the NFL is working together with some big social network websites on a set of rules it intends to impose on its staff and players.
The league wants to protect its image from clone and fake accounts that might be spreading false information around the web. The NFL official has admitted close contacts to Twitter that will help observe players' and staff members' accounts for derogatory remarks, spam or hacking that might lead to any bad publicity towards the league's name.
After Twitter's huge success in the U.S., many incidents regarding fake accounts have plagued the rich and famous. Most NFL players don't have a Twitter account, which leads to regular users registering their names illicitly and wreaking havoc inside the league, teams, press agencies and fans alike. The NFL Office has admitted taking the first step in approaching some social network sites and asking to reserve or protect certain usernames that might be employed by some of its players in the future.
The NFL is one of the first major sport leagues to actively admit and direct resources towards social networks, a big influence on Twitter's success being the constant publicity campaign on the league's TV channel, the NFL Network.
This sorely doesn't mean that the league is going to look the other way when players go overboard with some of their tweets. Recently, after a statement from Chad Ochocinco, wide-receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, the NFL has forbidden any NFL player or staff member actively engaged in an NFL football match to use any kind of device that posts messages on a social network.
Another NFL star, Antonio Cromartie, corner-back for the San Diego Chargers, was fined 2,500 $ for ripping on his camp food. The player posted a message on his Twitter account on the 4th of August 2009, calling his training camp meals “nasty food.” The player was approached on the same day by his head coach Norv Turner that informed him of the fine.
Being asked for comments by the media, the player that was in the locker-room, pulled his laptop out of his locker and opened it to reveal the fact that all the time he was out training with the team, the laptop was connected to his Twitter account.
NFL management is fearing that players or staff will start using Twitter to give away competitive advantages or sensitive information about future games, internal affairs or unofficial information about private projects. This kind of situations could affect players and league officials alike.
An example of this is a recent tweet from Bernard Berrian, wide-receiver for the Minnesota Vikings, who stated that his fellow team-mate, quarter-back Tarvaris Jackson, had injured his knee and wouldn't be able to play for the rest of the season. The information turned out to be false, but the damage was done and team representatives had to answer a huge amount of questions and phone calls from different press agencies.
So, there is a sense that the league is trying to protect the internal peace that it's earned through the years and not let the press and media get over-saturated with NFL-related topics that might dampen interest for the upcoming season.