How NFL Draft Prospects Are Learning to Protect Themselves From Social Media Snafus

Published April 24, 2019 on Sports Illustrated

At the NFL Scouting Combine in 2013, a prospect walked into his 15-minute interview with a team and, to his surprise, was handed a stack of papers as thick as a novel. He flipped through the heavy pile, expecting to see blank play diagrams for some board work. Instead, each page was full of old tweets, taken straight from his own Twitter timeline.

A sampling:

I want some mac and cheese… smh this curfew… on the road again... don’t even know … ready for dinner… takin care of business… 

On one day during the season, he’d sent 26 tweets, announcing his every move as the day went on. His agent had talked to him about toning down his Twitter presence during the pre-draft process, but he hadn’t taken that advice seriously. He’d never tweeted anything inappropriate, so he didn’t see what the fuss was about. Now, as he sat in front of a group of team personnel and held the ridiculous weight of his unimportant status updates in his hands, he finally understood.

What the f--- do you want to do? the team’s decision-makers asked him. Tweet or play football? If you want to play football, how the f--- do you have time to prepare or play when you are tweeting every five seconds?