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Another test for draft prospects to pass: Twitter

TWITTER FEED FIGHT

** ADVANCE FOR SUNDAY, MAY 15 ** In this photo taken Thursday, May 12, 2011, Adorian Deck, a high school senior and creator of @OMGFacts, who claims social media mogul Emerson Spartz stole his idea, is seen in his home in Grass Valley, Calif. Deck said he created @OMGFacts in 2009 as a Twitter feed providing a steady stream of information, with an emphasis on celebrities, pop culture, history and commerce. In the suit, filed in federal court, Deck claims that Spartz took advantage of the inexperience of Deck and his mother, Marylou, who also signed the partnership agreement, to “misappropriate (Deck’s) intellectual property and the fruits of his creative efforts."(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

AP

We’ve heard of players getting red flags for injuries, size, football intelligence, and off-field problems. Could they also get one for tweeting too much?

From Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com:

“I heard a few stories of how the Patriots were following prospects on Twitter as part of the scouting process, with a Patriots staffer telling someone close to a prospect that the team noticed a high volume of tweets and wondered if the player was more into tweeting than football,” Reiss writes.

We don’t mean to imply that an active Twitter account will be the difference between a guy getting taken in the first and second round. But it’s a reminder that everything will be examine when evaluating a prospect, especially by teams that want robots football-only types.

(It’s also a good lesson for folks applying for slightly less lucrative post-college jobs.)

One thing we agree with the Patriots about: Over-tweeting is a heinous crime, especially banal aspects of one’s personal life. We’d take someone off our draft board if they wrote too much about their chores or started every morning with “Rise and grind!”