Eric Mangini Will Tolerate Players Using Twitter…For Now

One of the more unorthodox topics to stem from this weekend’s Brown and White scrimmage is the team’s use of Twitter.  Timely, given WFNY’s recent athlete account tournament, but the number of Browns players using the social media medium continues to grow by leaps and bounds – something that could inevitably force the front office to curb the content that streams on each player’s respective feed.

The tweet that stoked the newswire flames came from All-Scrimmage defensive back Brandon McDonald who published a not-so-friendly tweet about division rival Cincinnati Bengals and their signing of veteran wide receiver Terrell Owens.  McDonald would pawn the tweet off as a joke, something that he claimed “escalated” despite his non-malicious intentions.  Joke or not, Browns head coach Eric Mangini discussed the team’s need to think before hitting that send button.

“I saw it and I talked to the team about social media [Monday] morning,” said Mangini.  “I think that with social media, it’s a great way to connect to the fans. They have a responsibility to do that in a way that represents the organization the right way.  That’s their responsibility and they are accountable for it.  If they don’t do it, there are consequences to those actions.”

Long been considered to be an iron fist ruler in the mold of Bill Belichick, Mangini followed up his comments by stating that the team will not forced players to stop Tweeting, but they do urge them to keep trash talk and team-related issues in house.

“We know with Browns fans, they can’t have too much information, can’t have too much of a connection and that’s a great thing,” said Mangini.  “But like with anything else that you do, you have to do it in the right way and a way that represents the organization the right way” 

But while he will not stop the team from Tweeting just yet, this does not mean that he will not fine players for their Tweets as they have been fined in the past for various infractions that may seem minor to some fans and players alike.  Alas, the mentioned consequences for said actions.

Last season, Browns cornerback Eric Wright tweeted that he was fined by the league for a uniform infraction – said Tweet was later removed, likely at the recommendation of the team along with an invoice of sorts.  And then as recent as this past Monday afternoon, rookie cornerback Joe Haden tweeted that a player (speculated to be fellow rookie defensive back TJ Ward) was fined $1,760 for a cell phone going off in a team meeting.  While the specific tweet still remains in Haden’s feed, one can assume that he will also be receiving a fine of similar proportions.

While Mangini has stated that the team does not have a “czar of tweeting,” the way that specific tweets can be disseminated as if it were wildfire provides the team with an easy way of knowing when questionable statements may be published by certain players. 

This topic continues to be one that is discussed more an more with each passing season.  When he was introduced to season ticket holders this past winter, Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta stated that he was not a huge fan of players using Twitter and Facebook.  Not helping the players’ case, Acta was soon confronted with one of his own players getting caught up in an Internet scandal related to leaked photos.  Several months later, Acta would not promote David Huff from Triple-A after someone tweeted that he had been promoted for a start later that week.

Several members of the Cavaliers (including tournament champion Mo Williams) use Twitter, but the shear number of NFL players on a given roster – coupled with the various personalities – continue to keep football players in the limelight when it comes to various sports Twitter-based topics.  As Braylon Edwards found out the hard way, Twitter is also a two-way street in terms of connecting to the fans.

“I think now in the workplace it is becoming a bigger and bigger thing where you have your resume and you have the rest of your body of work,” said Mangini. “If it’s out there, someone is probably going to look at it.  Who knows what’s on there and how that can be interpreted?”

“Those fun pictures you take in college, they may not be so fun five years from now when somebody is looking at that going, ‘Should we hire him or not hire him?’  I’m really happy they didn’t have it when I was in college.  We all got a little lucky there.”