The 2009 campaign marks with 50th season of the NFL’s coexistence with the AFL, which became part of the established league in 1970.
It also marks the first season of the NFL’s coexistence with Twitter, a microblogging web site that many players and members of the media are using daily.
The league has yet to announce a specific policy regarding the use of Twitter, which for the uninitiated allowed users to post messages of up to 140 characters onto a feed that can be “followed” by any other person with an account. Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco, for example, has vowed to tweet during games.
Already, some are testing the limits of it.
Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe apparently tweeted from his team’s camp-opening mandatory session: “Zzzzzz zzzzz zzz zzz (in meetings) lol.. Introducing the staff.”
We assume that players have been discreetly receiving and sending text messages during meetings for years now, but such activities don’t create an easily accessible trail of popcorn.
Twitter does.
So look for Shiancoe and any other player who tweets during team meetings to be fined.
And then to tweet about it.