Life is Black and Yellow

I would consider myself a "daddy's girl." But not your typical one. I'm more of a yell and swear at the TV about sports kind of "daddy's girl." The Steelers have been my team pretty much since birth and there is a running joke that my husband's groom's cake will be replaced by a Steeler cake at my wedding. Although my boys won't be making their ninth appearance in the Super Bowl this year they had seven, count 'em seven, players named to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. I follow countless Steeler Twitter accounts along with individual players. And constantly RT the extremely popular and hilarious @TroysHair, the satirical and witty thoughts of Troy Polamalu's infamous hair. I am slightly obsessed, and yes am guilty of tweeting players hoping to get a reply back. I have a Pinterest board "#blackandyellow" that would make even Hines Ward proud and admit to the whole blogosphere I cried when they lost the Super Bowl last year. In short, my life is black and yellow.  

The Steelers have had their issues with the Commissioner the past couple seasons with the latest incident involving a cell phone and Troy Polamalu. Although the NFL has previously issued fines for players using their cell phones on the sidelines during games, the league has issued a new set of rules for the Pro Bowl. For the first time players will be allowed to tweet from designated computers located on the side lines during the game. This is a far cry from typical game day rules when players are banned from all social media 90 minutes before kick off and until their media obligations are completed after the game. However there are always stipulations when it comes to the NFL. Twitter will be the only form of social media and players will only be allowed to tweet before the game and during halftime. 

I think it is absolutely genius the NFL allow players to tweet during the game. It is the perfect way to draw in every die hard fan whose team didn't make it to Super Bowl Sunday. As corny as it sounds I feel like I know these guys personally by reading their tweets with topics ranging from practice to smack talk to posting pictures of their kids. Cris Collinsworth was recently named the most hated announcer in sports, a title I wouldn't argue with. Collinsworth is openly a Bengals fan and shows that bias while calling games. I know I would much rather read tweets from my favorite players from my favorite team about what's going on in the game than hear it from some announcer who doesn't particularly care for my Steelers. Personally I think the NFL should consider making the new tweeting rules permanent, with some guidelines of course. After all it is the players' game and we're just watching. 

The argument may be made that allowing players to live tweet during games may backfire. Tweets driven by emotion may become nasty and inappropriate comments concerning calls and referees may be made. But these comments are already being made by players on social media forums after the game, just watch SportsCenter they highlight them every Monday. Others may argue that tweeting during a game would be distracting for players; so let the individual coaches decide if their players would be allowed to live tweet or keep the tweeting contained to before the game and/or solely during halftime. Being a die hard twitterer and ride or die member of Steeler Nation, I think live tweeting should be allowed during regular season NFL games at the digression of coaches. 

So....What do you think? NFL players live tweeting. Absolute genius or absolute disaster?