Postgame Press: Twitter and the Antonio Brown problem

Snapchat? Not for me. Facebook? Meh. Instagram? Alright. Twitter? Oh yeah. I love the funny tweets, I love the news tweets, I love tweets — period. I have to admit, my favorite part of Twitter has to be the sports discourse. I follow Cubs fans, who are diehard and always have something funny or motivational to say, even when we just knocked ourselves out of the playoffs in painful fashion. I follow insiders who break free agent or injury news before the major outlets. I follow parody sports accounts who hate certain teams with a passion. As a sports fan, Twitter for me is a wonderland.

With that said, we have seen a lot of the problems that come with Twitter usage by non-laypeople. President Trump has certainly made waves with his own Twitter account. Now, we can add a whole new narrative to the “Don’t let public figures use Twitter” argument. Antonio Brown has been one of the hottest names in football recently and almost none of it for his play.Regarded as one of, if not the, best receiver in football, he may now be known for his actions in his final offseason and beginning of this season.

He got frostbite, filed a grievance about his nearly-decade-old helmet, got fined for his behavior and missing practices for the Raiders, celebrated online his being basically fired, went to the Patriots, scored a touchdown and had a former trainer, Britney Taylor, begin the processing of a civil suit against him for sexual assault and rape. That was before a second accuser came out and before he texted threats. This is a disaster on all sides. That said, the focus of this story is not every bad thing Antonio Brown has done within the past month and a half. This story focuses  on his most recent scandal: Twitter.

Brown took to Twitter two days after being fired from the Patriots and unleashed his malcontent. He discussed other sexual accusations against other current or former NFL players. He called out Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his scandal. Finally, Brown posted a picture of the trainer who has accused him of sexual assault.

Twitter is the form of social media that has been used the most to connect celebrities directly to fans. They interact with each other and it can offer a more personal glimpse than Instagram photos. This is where it gets dangerous. While Antonio Brown brings up poignant flaws in the NFL system, his direct involvement is problematic. The fact that he tweeted about his former boss’ issues in tandem with his accusations and posted the photo of himself and his accuser is a horrible use of the social media platform. He is not expunged of his own actions. Whether all prominent figures need to be monitored is not an easy decision and would make Twitter feel less authentic, people like Brown who are misusing it in myriad ways need to have their access denied, whether by the platform or by those around them.