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Mike Preston: Social media has changed the narrative for NFL players, and it is not good


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Mike Preston, The Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE — National Football League head coaches are spending as much time monitoring their players on social media as they are drawing up and installing plays.

That’s because we are in the “Me Generation” of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Hey, look at my new car, new house or new cellphone. That’s me with my dog Butkus, or here I am drinking a cup of coffee. Oh, there I am in front of the new beach house.

Look at me. It’s always about me, me, me …

 

https://buffalonews.com/sports/football/mike-preston-social-media-has-changed-the-narrative-for-nfl-players-and-it-is-not/article_20d61fed-ee4e-545a-8ed4-26a219d4e2dd.html

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Mike Preston has been hated by Baltimore fans for as long as I can remember.  This article is a good example of why.  It was really nothing but bitching and whining on behalf of himself and NFL teams.  The NFL is happy to take advantage of social media, the internet and other modern tech when it suits them so they aren’t getting any sympathy from me if there’s a downside too.  Ditto Preston.  He ***** about players trying to use social media to get better contracts, but ignores the fact that owners can make billions of dollars over the course of owning a team.  So they have to manage some social media stuff from players in the process?  Boo hoo.  It’s part of the package these days.  If they don’t want to deal with that stuff they can do something else in a less public industry. 

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The concept of social media, being able to keep in touch with people you don't see often or if at all in person, was a good thought and not a flawed way of thinking. The problem is the flawed people, what it has become, and what it is used for now. You have a bunch of people recording basically every bowel movement on their preferred platforms and people who follow it like it truly matters. Then you have the internet gangstas who use it as an avenue to say all kinds of things they wouldn't have the gall to say in person because they likely won't ever see the person in real life, but know it would end up in them getting their *ss beat if they did. Then you have the people who use it to prey on others in various forms with too many examples or categories to list them all. For what it was meant to be in the beginning, it has almost become the bane of our existence.

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Social media gives everyone a voice. Some people have good judgment on how and when to use their voice. Some people don't. In the NFL it has given players a much more accessible public platform where what they say isn't filtered. They are using it to exert pressure, create leverage and ultimately get their way. 

 

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41 minutes ago, HOUSE said:

603ce8f4cfa35.image.jpg?resize=1200,823

 

Mike Preston, The Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE — National Football League head coaches are spending as much time monitoring their players on social media as they are drawing up and installing plays.

That’s because we are in the “Me Generation” of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Hey, look at my new car, new house or new cellphone. That’s me with my dog Butkus, or here I am drinking a cup of coffee. Oh, there I am in front of the new beach house.

Look at me. It’s always about me, me, me …

 

https://buffalonews.com/sports/football/mike-preston-social-media-has-changed-the-narrative-for-nfl-players-and-it-is-not/article_20d61fed-ee4e-545a-8ed4-26a219d4e2dd.html

The irony of the reporter crying about controlling the narrative, and then doing the same thing in this "article" is not lost on me.

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27 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Sports is just a microcosm of society, in that and every other respect.  Social media is a NET NEGATIVE for humanity.

 

I can't disagree with you on the "net negative".  You can have some dude with a theory and he gets equal time/equal platform with a dude who spent his life studying the subject and knows a thing.  Misinformation spreads easily.  It's a substitute And, it's a beautiful platform for predators to find prey

I do think the reporter's analysis in the OP link is shallow.  For example, he says:

Quote

In the case of Orando Brown Jr., Ravens executives Eric DeCosta and Ozzie Newsome are common-sense guys. If he had just gone to them and asked for permission to seek a trade they probably would have granted him permission, especially after how well Brown played last season.

How does he know that Brown didn't go to them and seek permission to look for a trade and was told "you're our franchise RT and we depend on you as our backup LT, No Way"?  He doesn't, he's assuming.

 

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10 minutes ago, Billschinatown said:

Richie being off his meds was probably worse for his career than social media. 

 

*BING*. 

 

Didn't he admit that during his final year with the Bills, he was off his meds, using recreational drugs, showing up for meetings high, and his level of play had fallen off (hence being asked to renegotiate)?

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33 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

Social media gives everyone a voice. Some people have good judgment on how and when to use their voice. Some people don't. In the NFL it has given players a much more accessible public platform where what they say isn't filtered. They are using it to exert pressure, create leverage and ultimately get their way.

 

It's def. a double-edged sword.  As you say, it gives them a platform.  Some of them use it to "build a brand" and get marketing opportunities - Dion Dawkins with his "shnow" product line, Jon Feliciano, Stefon Diggs.  Some of them use it to make connections - Poyer found someone to teach him snowboarding and take him fishing.

 

For that to work, you have to post enough personal stuff to gather a following, which is where the double-edged sword of opening yourself to fan negativity as well.

 

 

 

 

 

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Agree. I wish they could follow the lead of politicians and just avoid social media. 

32 minutes ago, Doc said:

Social media has been a scourge on humanity.

To a point. There is also a lot that is awesome about it. It’s all on how the person chooses to use it. 

1 hour ago, HOUSE said:

Here's my new car

 

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Listen bro. I was nice enough to let you borrow it for your date but you have to return it. 

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3 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

Agree. I wish they could follow the lead of politicians and just avoid social media. 

To a point. There is also a lot that is awesome about it. It’s all on how the person chooses to use it. 

Listen bro. I was nice enough to let you borrow it for your date but you have to return it. 


Do you have kids?  Social media is terrifying.  They spend their time on it (or their friends do) at a young age, and internalize the “like/dislike” dynamic, plus one mistake they make will follow them around for life potentially.  It’s horrible.  (And my parents’ generation is worse!  Baby Boomers on Facebook is possibly the worst thing that has happened in this century.  They fill their time with Facebook-surfing for cat videos, conspiracy theories, stupid memes and lame jokes, hokey sayings of encouragement, pictures of their new kitchens, etc.  THE WORST.)

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2 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:


Do you have kids?  Social media is terrifying.  They spend their time on it (or their friends do) at a young age, and internalize the “like/dislike” dynamic, plus one mistake they make will follow them around for life potentially.  It’s horrible.  (And my parents’ generation is worse!  Baby Boomers on Facebook is possibly the worst thing that has happened in this century.  They fill their time with Facebook-surfing for cat videos, conspiracy theories, stupid memes and lame jokes, hokey sayings of encouragement, pictures of their new kitchens, etc.  THE WORST.)

Oh for sure. There are a lot of adults like that too. But that’s kinda on the parents too. 

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11 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I can't disagree with you on the "net negative".  You can have some dude with a theory and he gets equal time/equal platform with a dude who spent his life studying the subject and knows a thing.  Misinformation spreads easily.  It's a substitute And, it's a beautiful platform for predators to find prey

 

 

When I trained and briefly worked as a journalist it was drummed into you that you were enormously privileged to have a platform and that brought with it a great weight of responsibility to use that platform as a force for good. To seek out and report truth. Now people can think what they want about how well some journalists practiced that and whether the mainstream media sowed the seeds of its own demise and to some extent I'd likely agree. But the man who knows nothing now has a platform where there is no responsibility and where he can freely disseminate crackpot theory and deliberate misinformation and then defend it by saying "yea but free speech.

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Social media is proof most people are really and truly stupid.

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