Last night on Twitter, I saw Steelers S Ryan Clark asking (*cough*begging*cough*) for more followers. It seems as though Mr. Clark was looking for 10,000 followers for his page. (He should have asked his long haired teammate, Troy Polamalu. He rarely tweets, yet has 33K followers).

Clark started out his by having a simple incentive to following him:



What I found funny is that Clark followed up his tweet by giving reason why he may not be as successful as some on the social networking website:


WHOA!!!!!

Of course, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, Clark is possibly referring to the oh so boisterous, Chad Ocho Cinco of the Cincinnati Bengals, who is Twitter royalty and just finished showing his reality show, "The Ultimate Catch" on VH1. This actually may have had more steam, had Clark had more followers (at the current moment he has 12,602 followers, while Ocho Cinco's page has 1,293,946 followers).

At least Clark surpassed his 10K mark like he asked.... I was uninterested in following him (The Ravens fan in me makes me petty like that), until I saw this tweet:


Hopefully this applies to Steelers AND Ravens fans alike! *Hits follow button*

As you guys and gals know, I love me some Twitter. It's one of the best inventions since white sliced bread as far as I'm concerned. With twitter you can read folks thoughts and interact with your fave celebs/ athletes, while getting the latest breaking news, all rolled in one.

But with the growing popularity of Twitter, comes the Twitter haters. There are some that have taken certain steps to show that they don't like the intimate tweets made regarding... anything.

Case in point #1- Antonio Cromartie Fined


The Chargers CB was recently fined $2500 for tweeting about "nasty food" at the Chargers facility during training camp.


Come on now..... How many times have you had a potluck or even have a cafeteria at work and came across some food that was down right disgusting??? When you talk to your friends at the end of the day, you say to them, "Man... today I had some food that was nasty as hell..." and continue to tell the story. What Cromartie did was no different. He was speaking his mind.

Now, I follow Cromartie (click here to add him to your follow list), and he doesn't say off the wall things often, so you know he's upset at this point. Hell, I know I would. Because of his fine, last night Cromartie tweeted this after a practice:

"man we had a grt practice 2day The defense flow around we made a lot of plays every1 knows I have 2 watch wht i say now cause i got fined"

LOL dude is scared as hell to say anything related to his job. He probably can't fart and tweet about it without being fined. First the NFL cracked down on tweeting during games (which I can understand. If I'm a coach or an owner, you get paid to play, everything else comes after your play on the field), now this?!

Case in point #2- ESPN's Tweeting Restrictions


So ESPN has added restrictions on what their personalities can and cannot tweet about. Hmmmmm.... To see the new guidelines, click here. So from here on out, if you follow an ESPN analyst, such as Chris Mortensen, you'll get minimal info and probably get teasers leading you to a link to their website to get the story in its entirety.

For both situations, this is some bull hockey, if I ever saw any. Twitter is a great marketing tool that allows you to gain a new fan base, so that they will actually go to the website you write for, or support the team the athlete plays for. For whatever reason, the NFL and ESPN sees Twitter as a threat, and to a point, I can understand. From a league standpoint, the thought of players "airing out dirty laundry" isn't appealing to them. And from a media standpoint, giving away too much info on Twitter when we want the traffic on our website is bad business. But this is too much. Writers and players are being held in Twitter jail, because it's been seen as a threat and not an ally.

If anything, Twitter should be your friend, not the enemy. Gaining new fans should make anyone happy. New viewers is potential $$$ so why it is looked down upon is beyond me. It's another form of media.

News flash to the NFL and ESPN, it's 2009. Get with the times. Twitter isn't going anywhere for a while, so it's time join modern day media. Stop this foolishness before you can't turn back.

So as you guys and gals can see, I'm on twitter. Hence my little twitter box in the upper right hand corner of my page (shameless plug, follow me @thenflchick on twitter).

Being the NFL Chick, I tend to follow a lot of NFL players, writers and agents because I can find good material for the blog. Anyone from Steven Jackson, to Antonio Pierce and Larry Fitzgerald. But the weirdest tweets comes from... none other than Chad Ochocinco, the Benglas WR.



I must say, I love me some 85. I'll go Bonita Butrell on you, "Don't you say nothing bad about Ochocinco". He seems like a good, fun loving guy, and I can get with that. But sometimes he posts the weirdest tweets. It took me a whole week before his tweets started to make sense to me. I decided to post some of them. Chad is actually funny, while being politically incorrect at the same time. Take a look at what the former Mr. Johnson talks about (stars have been added to some twitter names to protect the unpopular, regular people):

Got to go to rehersal, I am rapper once i touch the mike officially at 3:30, yessssssssss, damn could i go platinum, i know a million people

Yeah, cause all one million people will actually go out and buy it, huh??? Knowing damn good and well, folks use limewire and won't pay a dime.

Drew Rosehaus: it's Ocho, I am officially a rapper, you got to do my deal with Def Jam!!!! Yesssss

LOL poor Ocho... Rosenhaus didn't even get this tweet. Doesn't he know by now he has to put an "@" in front of his name? DUH!

@kearycolbert: man I am serious as he'll, the first black Mexican rapper, I got the Spanish culture behind me to, wow it's on

Uhhhhh................................

@quanique**00 Woooooo< stop playing man, i am a boxer,footballplayer, and a rapper, one more talent and i am gonna be famous,>

Ummmm... maybe I missed the memo, I thought you were already famous????

@HC**44 Music video is a great idea, got to shoot for the top, Me and Rick Ross, first single is , Child Please

LMAO at the title of the inaugural single. I expect this to be a cross between Deion Sanders' "Must Be The Money" and Willie Beamen's song on Any Given Sunday.

Twitter world, I am gonna be famous like the lady from the progressive commercials, or those cavemen!!!!! It's on

Seriously, dude... you are a football player. How do you compare yourself with insurance commercials?? Memo to Ocho Cinco: Cavemen are played out. Geico money is where you want to be, baby!

@iluvTERRICKA y'all can be in it, I got to find hype Williams or Benny Boom

I'm assuming he's talking about being in his "video" for his "single". Damn dude, don't you need some lyrics and a producer before you start thinking of your video director???

I just want enough money to keep on supporting my Mc Donalds addiction!!!

Bwahahahhahahahah rapping for french fries and sweet teas. The economy has gotten that bad, huh???

Snoop got us all dickie outfits, I am wearing mine like a essay, they pulled high above my waist

Okay.... I'm crossed in emotions. Did he really type that???? Should I laugh til my eyes water, or should I be shocked he tweeted that...... LOL



Now don't get me wrong, Mr. 85 does mention positive things. Chad stated earlier Sunday that he was attending a Cedars Sinai Sports Spectacular, which was a charity benefit for children with genetic birth defects. So while he's a very funny (and, at times, weird) tweeter, he's definitely doing things for a great cause during his time in LA.

If you're on twitter, follow him @OGOchoCinco (this is the real him). He will keep you entertained... or surprised.. depending on your humor level.

And Ochocinco, if you ever read this... I still love you :)