To Tweet or Not to Tweet, a Question Many in the NFL Need to Ask

Social media outlets like Twitter can be great marketing tools. Some have used it to maintain their popularity even though their production has dwindled (right, Chad Ochocinco? or is it Chad Johnson now?). Others will post holiday wishes like "Happy Mother's Day" to running back LeSean McCoy or "Happy Birthday" to quarterback Michael Vick.

If there was a support group for Twitter addicts, the newest wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins would probably join. With the Dolphins now putting their playbooks on iPads, he'll have to control himself, and keep from tweeting on it. It'll cost him a cool $10,000 fine by the team.

Should there ever be a Twitter Hall of Fame some day Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay will be in its inaugural class. The eccentric owner has been known for tweeting lyrics to songs and other things that only he knows the meaning behind. However, recently he made the cardinal rule of social media. He responded to something out of anger.

Irsay took to Twitter last weekend to express his displeasure with a joke that Mike Florio had made at the bottom of  a post. You can't fully appreciate what transpired without seeing the tweets:

It got started with Florio' comment:

Luck likely will be free to endorse whatever he wants to endorse, including the use of images of his Stanford graduation to be included in a campaign for online courses aimed at teaching rich, middle-aged white guys how to type legibly on Twitter.

Irsay is usually pretty calm, cool, and collected. He sure didn't seem like it with his tweeted retorts:

Mike Florio,this is a graffiti tweet site,mis-spelling n slang rein intentionally;but 4 you to bring up race,age,eco-status is inappropriate

Mike Florio,ur comment about"campaign for online courses aimed at..white guys how to type legibly on Twitter",what do u mean? As opposed to?

While those were uncharacteristic for Irsay, it was against the media so who cares, right? Where he stepped out of line is when he responded to a fan that wanted to jump into the deep end of the pool:

Oh really Wes LaFever..so you like racist slurs,age discrimination and class warfare? Is that what your cheering about? I'm asking?

Honestly, whatever LaFever said does not matter. Irsay and every other public persona should know by now that there will always be someone that just wants to get you riled up to the point you say (tweet) something inappropriate. Don't stoop to their level Mr. Irsay.

You can call it unfair that athletes and owners like Irsay are expected to have better behavior on Twitter and other social media, but unless they want to give bloggers something else to blather on about (because we will) they might want to mind their Ps and Qs.