Maybe it's just the 24-hour news cycle or the ever quickening pace of technology, but it is hard to think of anything that's gone from "What's that?" to ubiquity faster than Twitter. Maybe that's why professional athletes are having such a hard time realizing that it is a public forum of communication that's no different from speaking to a beat writer following a game.
Jets wide receiver David Clowney used his account to vent some frustration about his playing time in the Jets win against the Patriots.
"1 play in the 1st Half, 4 plays in the 2nd half,.... A bit disappointed about my playing time but very happy and satisfied about the win."
A fairly mild complaint couched in happiness, but still not one you'd expect him to voice to, say, Rich Cimini from the Daily News. Fear about the repercussions of worrying about your own playing time moments after one of the biggest wins in recent franchise history usually equals silence. He should have thought twice about putting it on Twitter, because it wound up getting him benched for Sunday's win against the Titans after Rex Ryan found out about it.
Ryan said he was upset about Clowney putting himself before the team and told him early in the week that he'd be benched so he could see how Clowney responded.
"He could have come out and been upset and pouted or he could come out and been a Jet, worked his tail off and showed me that he wants to do it our way. He did exactly that. He was phenomenal in preparation. I'll probably give him scout team player of the week. He humbled himself. I was encouraged and excited about what I thought was progress last week. He really took the challenge and he made his teammates better this week by challenging them."
The punishment seems a bit harsh, especially taking into account a later tweet that Clowney sent about working harder and doing more next week. Such is life when you're being made into an example, though. There's been a million little flareups over stuff written on Twitter, this was just the first one featuring the Jets and so they set their own policy in no uncertain terms.
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It's funny how perception alters reality. Ryan comes off looking like a good guy here for sending the message that nothing comes before the team, even if wanting to play more could hardly be deemed a detriment. The move reinforced the identity he's trying to build with the Jets without hurting the team, and that will serve to do nothing more than make Ryan look even better in the long run. If Eric Mangini had benched Clowney for what he said, though, he'd be chastised as an uptight scold worried about things that have no bearing on his football team.
That's the difference between being 3-0 and 0-3, though.
