NFL Players on Twitter

by | Sep 4, 2009 | NFL Media

We’ve written a couple of posts regarding Twitter and the NFL now, a topic that given that my day job requires a certain amount of knowledge of the platform, continues to amaze me.  I’ve grown from someone who thought Twitter was a complete waste of time to someone who…thinks that it’s still largely a waste of time, but is strangely useful and entertaining for certain things.

For instance, during the NFL draft this past spring, I was watching the draft and following along on Twitter at the same time, gauging reaction from fans (and in a couple cases communicating directly with them) around the country (globe?) in real time, as the picks rolled in.

Further, as we’ve built our list of people we follow, we now occasionally find news tidbits that we will write about, or explore further on Zoneblitz.

More recently, we’ve started following a lot of NFL players, teams, and league employees (and even Drew Rosenhaus…although we still feel kind of dirty about that), watching for their opinions and comments on league happenings.  A lot of it is crap, but again, at times it’s entertaining.

To that end, we’ve started putting together a list of all of the official NFL team, player, and media profiles that we’ve found, so that anyone who’s into Twitter can find their favorite team’s players, and start following them as well.

We’ll do our best to finish the list (we’re probably not even half way there yet), and keep it updated–but feel free to contact us if you see something that we’ve failed to catch.

NFL Changes Social Media Policy

by | Sep 3, 2009 | Business of Football, No Fun League

The National Football League, despite encouraging players to connect with fans with new media tools such as Twitter, has updated it’s social media policy to largely outlaw usage of such tools by players, coaches, and media during games.  The policy includes other social media tools, such as Facebook, and extends for 90 minutes before the game, and until post game interviews are done.

The new policy also includes representatives of players–so players like Chris Cooley, who regularly blogs throughout the year, including during the season and on game days, might be in hot water if his brother (who manages his site, and regularly posts there as well) are posting on game days.

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LeBeau, Little Nominated for the 2010 Hall of Fame Class

by | Aug 25, 2009 | Hall of Fame

Former Detroit Lions cornerback and famed assistant coach Dick LeBeau and former Denver Broncos RB Floyd Little were named as the first finalists for the 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2010 by the senior committee earlier today (special thanks to commenter boardgame for bringing it to our attention).

Write ups on both LeBeau and Little follow the jump…but before we get into those details, while both Little and LeBeau were on the list of possible 2010 Senior Candidates assembled by Tony P. back in January, I’m not sure if either would be at the top of my list today.  Little embodies to me the type of player who apparently you had to see play to want in–his statistics alone don’t do much for me, and simply “saving a franchise” doesn’t do much for me in terms of the Hall of Fame. LeBeau was a solid player who never won much in terms of post-season honors, and has probably been bumped up a level with his defensive coaching record.  Overall, I’d say they are two ok selections, but probably not the best–and I’d be surprised if both made it in next winter.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

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Coming Soon: Los Angeles Jaguars?

by | Aug 21, 2009 | Business of Football, NFL News

They stole the Dodgers from Brooklyn, the Lakers from Minneapolis, and the Clippers from San Diego.  They stole the Rams from Cleveland, before losing them to St. Louis, and they stole the Raiders…well, ok, Al Davis did most of the stealing in that one, before eventually taking his ball and going back to Oakland.

In fact, only two major pro sports teams have ever been formed in Los Angeles–the Angels, who moved to Anaheim (before Los Angeles “stole” them back, without even needing them to move), and of course the Los Angeles Kings–because when you think Southern California, you think hockey.

So, despite not really showing that they could support one (or two) NFL franchises in the 1990’s, ever since the Rams and Raiders packed up and left, there has been speculation about who Los Angeles would steal to put a team back in the #2 television market in the United States.

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Hall of Fame Contest

by | Aug 20, 2009 | Hall of Fame

Tony Parslow, one of our regular Hall of Fame commenters, sent us over an idea for a kind of contest post, as it relates to the Hall of Fame and the fact that they are behind in electing some qualified players.

To be honest, I’m not sure I agree with 100% of the list that Tony and other commenters have put together–I think all the guys on the list are very, very good, but not necessarily Hall of Fame worthy.

But, at the same time, we always love a good contest–and while Tony offers the prize of sending the winning entry to the Hall of Fame committee for veterans committee consideration, I’ll take it a step further and offer some Zoneblitz.com memorabilia for the winning entry–because who doesn’t like free t-shirts?

Explanation of the contest & rules are after the jump…and good luck (especially finding punters worthy of Hall of Fame consideration)!

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