To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

That has been the question on the minds of many Buckeye fans since Urban Meyer met with the team January 3rd and was rumored to have instituted a Twitter ban on the football players. Immediately following the meeting, a couple of the players tweeted that they were asked to discontinue their Twitter accounts, and the media went crazy with news that Meyer had imposed a Twitter ban.

A couple hours later, a few of the other players tweeted that they had never been asked not to use Twitter and laughed at the frenzy that had ensued based on the news from the meeting.

So why did some players hear one thing and other players another? What is the real scoop on Twitter?

Urban Meyer responded yesterday that he never asked that the players delete their Twitter accounts and never suggested a complete Twitter ban. Rather, he told the players that their social media accounts would be monitored by the coaching staff and asked that they not discuss the team. If they violate this request, then their social media rights will be revoked.

Personally, I was okay with a complete Twitter ban. It isn't that I don't like Twitter or social media. (I am using a form of it to write my blog, after all, and I do enjoy checking in on my friends through Facebook.) But as a student-athlete at a school like Ohio State, where distractions abound, maybe it isn't such a bad idea to avoid a form of media that is likely to be used against you more often than it might be used in your favor. Words of student-athletes, celebrities, professional athletes, politicians, etc. have been used against them from their tweets for years now. Everything you say and do during your time as a representative of the university reflects for or against the university. And all of your actions and words are under a microscope -- most especially now, given the events of the past year.

So a Twitter ban was okay with me, and it certainly isn't unprecedented. Iowa football head coach Kirk Ferentz instituted a ban as well, as have coached on other teams throughout the nation. But I heard an outcry that Meyer was a horrible coach for doing such a thing -- imposing a ban on the rights of young men. I sat back and tried to understand why a ban would be a bad thing...but I still can't come up with anything. Sure, "tweeting" is a form of speech, and we all have that right to freedom to speak our minds. But as I mentioned above, when you accept that position as a student-athlete, representing your university, you also accept the responsibility to make sound decisions and choices that will not reflect poorly on your school. As much fun as it might be to connect with others on Facebook, My Space, or Twitter, it also opens you to a whole new level of scrutiny from the professional media, who often as waiting to pounce on you for any wrongdoing. I also read opinions that Meyer should let the young men learn how to be responsible for themselves in what they post.

Really? I think Tressel probably felt the "young men" he coached were responsible enough to know right from wrong -- that is, to know that they shouldn't sell their Big Ten championship rings for tattoos and possibly other illicit items.

Now is exactly the time to impose seemingly unfair rules with the athletes at The Ohio State University. Sorry that those who came before you screwed it up for the people to follow, but this is a new coaching staff with new expectations, and the NCAA not only expects but is requiring the Buckeyes as an institution to keep their collective noses clean for THREE years.

So I would say that a social media ban is the least that can be expected. And if a recruit chose not to attend OSU because of a ban, then chances are that OSU would be better off without taking the chance on him/her.

However, given that no ban has been instituted, let's examine the true situation.

• The players will be permitted to tweet their little hearts out, but their social media accounts will be monitored. It leads me to wonder whose job it is to monitor the tweets of the football team. (How much does that job pay? Seriously, I could do that...)



• The players were also asked not to discuss the team in their social media posts. This is also a very reasonable request. Tweet whatever you like about your classes, your girlfriend, how many people you killed in Battlefield 3, but please don't discuss anything about the team, because it will be picked up by ESPN or the local news and twisted around in every possible way to make the team look bad.



• The players were asked to be responsible for their social media use. I think this should be true of everyone -- be a responsible human and adult. And as I mentioned above, it is a nice theory that you have to teach these young adults how to be responsible for themselves, but I would keep them on a VERY tight leash.

And on a sidenote, it will be interesting to see how the coaching staff deals with Dominic Clarke, who was picked up on a DUI charge after a traffic stop this week. This is the first serious offense for Urban Meyer. Clarke, a DB, has been in trouble once this season for disorderly conduct. Apparently he was caught firing a BB gun (or possibly a paintball gun) on campus, in an attempt to see how far it would shoot.

And that, my friends, is the perfect example of what I am talking about. It made the local news that Dominic Clarke, primarily a BACK-UP player on the football team, was picked up for shooting a BB gun on campus. He wasn't reported to have been firing at anyone in particular. But once you step a toe out of line, everything you have ever done will be used to make you look like a chronic offender and make the university look like it has lost control of its players.

Clarke was picked up on a DUI charge. That is the more serious issue, because after all the issues OSU has had of late, why would you be out drinking and driving during conditioning season? And is Clarke even of age to drink? (Reports I have found have listed his age as 20 years.)

Maybe he can send me a tweet to confirm...