Eagles running back LeSean McCoy has made headlines for his Twitter use before, but there’s a big difference between trash talking with Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora and what happened between him and the mother of his son over the weekend.
McCoy lobbed volleys toward the woman, whose Twitter page identifies her only as Steph, in what seemed to be an argument about requests for money. USA Today has some of the tweets from McCoy’s account, which has been deleted, as well as the woman’s replies. Those replies included accusations that McCoy performed a particular sexual act to her to get out of paying child support and that McCoy’s current girlfriend had slept with one of his best friends.
McCoy originally deactivated the account by saying that his account was hacked. It’s a familiar explanation for unsavory content, but McCoy took the unusual step of admitting he made up the hacking story as part of a larger apology for the whole situation.
“In light of the recent events that played out over Twitter this past weekend, I would like to express how deeply sorry and remorseful I am to my family, the Philadelphia Eagles, my fans, and every young person who views me as a role model. This is not who I am as a person, nor the image I ever wanted to portray of myself. It’s definitely not the example I want to set for my son,” McCoy said in a statement, via CSNPhilly.com. “My Twitter account was not hacked. I take full responsibility and I apologize for trying to make it seem like it was not me. Due to my bad judgment and frustration, I allowed a very personal matter to be played out on a social network, of all things. It was immature and unprofessional for me to do so and to encourage others to join in.”
Anyone who follows athletes on Twitter can tell the ones who are doing it for themselves and those who are doing it with help as part of developing their “brand.” The latter approach is boring and inauthentic, but it’s a lot less likely to get you in trouble for flying off the handle in full view of the public.