Sideline Scoop: Infidelity and Beyond

Welcome to take two of the Sideline Scoop. Today, we will be taking a look at an interesting Twitter confession and two articles from the website Sports Networker.

1. Oliver Giroud admits infidelity...via Twitter

Oliver Giroud was best known for being the best goal-scoring threat on Arsenal FC. Then came Feb. 16, 2014, when, hours before a key match, he posted on his Twitter account that he had cheated on his wife. Not only was the timing of the announcement odd, but so was the medium by which he choose to relay his message that made it so unique. This article, posted on Bleacher Report, shows one of the dangers of Twitter: instant reaction from others.

2. The Social Media Engagement Guide

The first of two articles from Sports Networker, Lewis Howes takes a look at guidelines for teams and athletes, as well as businesses in general, to follow. It is a solid list that everyone should read and consider before they take part in social media.

3. Social Media and Sports Contracts

This article looks at extreme sports athletes (Tony Hawk, Shaun White and company) and how companies signed these athletes to contracts to promote their contract via social media, and where things will go from here.

Twitter Bringing Fans into the Recruiting Process

Social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter are marvelous creations, giving people unprecedented access to their favorite celebrities, teams and athletes. Unfortunately, this means that fans now risk getting too close to athletes, to the point that it may become detrimental to their favorite collegiate team.

Above, we see a screenshot of a tweet sent by Courtney Pastner, the sister of the University of Memphis head coach Josh Pastner, to Rodney Purvis, who at the time was being recruited by the Tigers. As innocent and harmless as the tweet seems, it could actually be considered an NCAA recruiting violation.

As Yahoo! Sports blog Prep Rally wrote, "there is no doubt that the younger Pastner is making public, direct contact with a recruit via social media, something which would be a clear violation if Pastner was doing so himself. The question is whether Courtney Pastner is 'someone affiliated with the Memphis institution.' Considering her relationship with her brother and her understandably open pro-Memphis bent (see her Twitter background above, for instance), Prep Rally is inclined to say that she should be tabbed as someone connected with the Tigers."

On Twitter, fans do not seem to know where the fine line between appropriate and inappropriate lies, and will often cross the line in an attempt to attract an athlete to their favorite school. ESPN highlighted Tyler Luatua, the No. 3tight end prospect in the Class of 2013, in a recent article, who had a Twitter user tell him, "Come to (Southern California), or I will kill myself."
"He eventually said he was just kidding," Luatua said. "He said he's got kids at home and would never do that, but I thought he was serious at first. That really freaked me out."

"Twitter is the Wild West of recruiting," Adoree' Jackson, a recruit out of California, told ESPN in the article. "I've had some weird things tweeted at me, crazy things. Some I can't say. It does get to the point where fans will tell you, 'If you come to my school, I'll give you this.' 'I'll throw a party for you.' 'I'll name my kid after you,' and stuff like that."

Coaches had enough to worry about before when it came to recruiting just from opposing teams' coaches. Today, they also have to worry about fans from their own school (or even another school) saying something that could influence a recruit's opinion and the possible NCAA sanctions that could come from such an action.

Worst of all for fans, their words often fall upon deaf ears.

"This is my life and not theirs," recruit Cameron Robinson out of Louisiana told ESPN. "I would be a fool to listen to what some person I never met before says, especially some crazy fan on Twitter."
The lesson to be learned from all this? Fans should leave the recruiting to the coaches.