Sunday ban on Twitter? NFL is offsides

The NFL is huddling over how to control players' social media use on game days. The league is concerned that players using Twitter on Sundays will cause distractions. (And, rest assured, gifted, spirited young millionaires will say goofy things, on Twitter or elsewhere.)

But this is an alarmist and unnecessary move. 

The league already has a policy banning players' use of computers, cell phones and other devices during games. And it should be illegal for someone to tweet from the sidelines. (Joe Horn infamously used a cell phone is his touchdown celebration in 2003.)

Players tweeting during games would be a nightmare that could reveal strategy, question referee calls, or taunt fans. But those things are already outlawed by the NFL's current ban of computers, phones and PDAs during games.

But restricting use throughout game day is a bad idea. Not because players can be trusted to only say constructive, mature and well-advised things on Twitter on Sundays. They're going to say dumb, inflammatory stuff. That genie is out of the bottle. You can't have both free speech and a restriction on the message. As we've seen in a far different situation in Iran, Twitter's power as a medium of free speech is very hard to control. The world is in the middle of a messy conversation in social media right now. The NFL can't black out Sundays from that dialogue. It would be very hard to enforce, and it would be wrong. 

Beyond that, social media is a way for all people -- whether celebrities or the politically oppressed -- to connect, not just with the world at large, but with the people close to us. Are the players not supposed to send a Facebook message to their moms on the morning of games? What about connecting on Sunday morning with former coaches and mentors? We do that now on Facebook and Twitter. And if players choose to tweet their fans who are paying hundreds of dollars to go to games? Isn't that a good way to reward fan loyalty?

The system of controlling how and when professional athletes players speak is ritualized and odd. A PR person will give the OK, the player sets up, and a crowd of reports gather around. That way, all the reporters get the same quote.

Boring. And stifling of the truth. 

Maybe that's why Panthers middle linebacker Jon Beason tweeted about a minor injury in training camp on Monday that "It's just a sprain!! Relax!" Twitter gave him the power to address something inaccurate that was being said about him. 

Coach John Fox has warned the Panthers players not to say anything they’d regret on Twitter, and to use their heads. That sounds like good advice for a coach to give his players in any avenue of life.  I think that's all the NFL needs. Yes, information is faster now, and players can completely control the message. So there is more room for error. There's also the excitement of connecting in real time with the players that fans love.

Joe Namath would've tweeted on game days. So would Jim McMahon -- who wore his statements at times written on headbands during the games. And what they said would've been surprising, entertaining and, sometimes, regrettable. But controlling free speech for the most important day of a public figure's career is not just impossible. It's unethical. People have a right to make their own mistakes. 

We can't pay athletes to be under the lights, then shove microphones in their faces and control how they communicate. They have a right to speak their minds. And we have a right to hear it.