The stereotype of the “dumb jock” is one that may very well be as old as modern sport itself.
Twitter isn’t doing much to improve upon it.
For the past few weeks the country has been enamored with a collegiate football star’s online relationship, which began over Twitter, and turned out to be a fallacy. Most people reading the details of the bizarre story question, “How could he not know?” as one red flag after another came to fruition.
With the NFL draft looming, the extent of the damage from the fallout of the strange story will soon be known. At best? Te’o will be seen as a naive kid, with NFL potential and still picked up early. At worst? A con-artist and PR burden to any organization—and they’ll choose not to deal with him.
The latest act of online stupidity comes from Philadelphia Eagles running back, LeSean McCoy. Earlier in the week, McCoy participated in Twitter’s equivalent of a screaming match with the mother of his young son, LeSean McCoy, Jr. While his “baby mama” certainly did her fair share of the inappropriate insult-throwing (claiming McCoy has herpes, as well as had a genital-enlarging surgery), McCoy took it one step further—calling upon his Twitter “army” (172k+ followers) to tweet this woman and tell her to “get a job,” amongst other things.
Because the heated exchange took place via social media, McCoy let the world know that not only did he not know this woman’s name prior to sleeping with her, but he also placed the “blame” of the pregnancy on her, since she was not on birth control.
Anybody else feel bad for their kid?
McCoy, who previously had a reputation as an overall good guy with a mega-watt smile who was praised throughout Philadelphia—is now tainted. Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, Phil Sheridan, called him out, saying, “McCoy confirmed every stereotype of the spoiled, arrogant professional athlete.”
And because he did it publicly, he’s also stupid. Everyone has their personal demons, but in a society that is highly intertwined with technology, those demons are now being aired openly. The consequences of these online actions aren’t limited to athletes. There are countless stories of people being fired for the content of their Facebook pages, or sending a Tweet that was seen by the wrong person. But it’s especially dense behavior for high-profile athletes like McCoy—who have millions of endorsement dollars tied to the perception of their character, and have potential ramifications from the team or league itself.
McCoy’s PR team has already kicked into high-gear, deleting the account, and issuing a statement of apology and responsibility. But the damage has already been done. And while this controversy will surely fade, reasonable people are still left to wonder why anyone would engage in this sort of private dialogue on Twitter.
Yet another dumb jock.
(Photo Courtesy of Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America)