
NFL Bans Twitter Before, During and After Football Games - blazzerbg
http://www.devtopics.com/nfl-bans-twitter-before-during-and-after-football-games/
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LargeWu
Just to clarify, the ban only applies 90 minutes before a game, through the
game and ends after the official post-game media time.

And this will last. Remember this is a league that mandates players stay in
hotels and have a curfew the night before games, even for home games...

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slpsys
There are also a limited number of players, and those players are employed
only by the good graces of the league. In the case of broadcast, there are a
very limited number of distributors, and they distribute live images of the
game. In the case of Youtube, a larger number of people are broadcasting
delayed images of the game. The ban, by comparison, affects millions of users
describing, textually, what is happening.

That's like the RIAA attempting to sue you for humming a song being played by
the performers in Miami tonight. I'm not saying it won't last, just that it
won't stick.

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Derrek
"Internet sites may not post detailed information that approximates play-by-
play during a game."... "The NFL has strict regulations on who can report what
from its games."

When will major organizations realize that these new-fangled web tools
actually increase the value of the organization through user/fan involvement?
Probably won't happen for a while...

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edw519
Won't last. The NFL will come to its senses soon enough. After all, the NFL
isn't popular because of the games themselves, it's popular because of what it
really is: gossip for men. The beat writers don't understand the game, the
announcers certainly don't understand the game, hell, half the coaches don't
understand the game.

But what are NFL fans really interested in? Who's injured. Who has the best
statistics. Who's on the schedule? Can we get a good seat at the sports bar?
What's the spread in the game? Who's dating a hot model? Did T.O. fart today?
How's my fantasy team doing? (Honestly, go to any sports bar on a Sunday
afternoon and see how many guys are watching 5 games at once just to see how
their individual players are doing.)

When the players go on strike and unknown replacements play, no one cares.
Fans care about the players and all their exploits, on the field and off.
Twitter would be the perfect addition to the media phenomenon that the NFL has
already become. Guys who pay $200 for seats, $100 for a day at the sports bar,
and gamble away all their discretionary income will salivate over tweets. It's
only a matter of time.

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tvon
I don't know what shitty "football fans" you've been hanging out with, but you
need to find some better ones.

~~~
olliesaunders
What is a true football fan by your definition?

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tvon
I have no interest in laying out a definition for a "true football fan", but
"someone who likes to watch football" is a good place to start.

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fallentimes
That won't stop Ochocinco.

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philwelch
Chad Ochocinco, formerly known as Chad Johnson, is famous for nicknaming
himself "Ocho Cinco", wearing the name "Ocho Cinco" on his jersey because he
thought it would be funny, getting fined by the NFL, and then _legally
changing his last name to Ochocinco just to get away with wearing it on his
jersey_.

The joke was on him though--due to legal obligations with the manufacturer of
the jersey, he had to wear the "C. Johnson" jersey for a full year after he
changed his last name to Ochocinco, since they had to get rid of inventory of
Johnson jerseys.

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spectre
How exactly do you send tweets while "playing" football?

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gojomo
Active players on the sidelines, during timeouts, and between periods can
still easily be considered to be "playing" the game-in-progress, even for
those moments they are not strictly "in play" or "on the field".

But you could even imagine -- with a team's permission for promotional
purposes -- that players with helmet radios could dictate tweets to someone
else.

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tvon
> But you could even imagine -- with a team's permission for promotional
> purposes -- that players with helmet radios could dictate tweets to someone
> else.

That would never happen, not in any foreseeable reality.

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gojomo
After things like live player-helmet and umpire cameras, I don't think you can
be so sure. About those cams:

<http://www.cbssports.com/info/about/press/2000/nfle>

Sure, it'd be banal -- "we really need to make this 3rd and long"... "my
linemen are doing a great job today"... etc. -- but it could happen.

And if not on Twitter, it could be official league-sanctioned Facebook status
updates, etc. as part of some other promotional tie-in with the league
websites or cable network.

And if not the NFL, a scrappy upstart, like the UFL or new USFL or AAFL could
try it.

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tvon
Ah yes, when you put it like that I could see it happening easy, at least in
an "NFL Films" or "mic'd up" kind of way where the player is only passively
taking part.

My reaction was to the word "dictate" really, the idea of a player (which
would have to be the QB) actively twittering in-game while on the field, eg
actually saying "hey coach, tell twitter we're going to go long and school the
Browns secondary".

As for non-NFL leagues, well I wouldn't put anything past them, they have no
brand to protect so they'll try anything.

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iamwil
Sounds like a target for some startup to topple.

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balding_n_tired
The NFL has proven very resilient. It absorbed the All-American Conference
about 1950, the AFL in the 1960s. The USFL sort of hung on in the 1980s until
Donald Trump decided to go head-to-head with a fall schedule.

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mahmud
OT: fellow yanks, watching a single game of Rugby Union, say, All Blacks vs
Wallabies, will let you see NFL 'athletes' for the panty waisted, overpaid,
timeouting-begging wussies they really are. _Pathetic_.

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davidw
Australian rules football seemed even more interesting to me than Rugby. It
seemed a bit faster and with more movement.

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anamax
And the umpires wear spiffier duds.

