MEGAN BROCKETT

For as long as there have been professional athletes, there have been professional athletes saying stupid things. It’s a part of sports, a part of life. People say things that maybe they shouldn’t, and when those people are professional athletes in the national spotlight, those things they maybe shouldn’t say are the things that get the most attention.

But what if these athletes are college kids, and what if the things they’re saying are things they are posting on social media networks, like Twitter and Facebook, for the world to see?

In recent years, big-name Division I schools like the University of Miami and Villanova University have banned their athletes from using social media sites with the fear in mind that their words could hurt the reputation of the players, program and school.

But do the schools really have the right to do this?

Most college athletes are legal adults, after all, and they have a right to freedom of speech like the rest of us. Beyond this, they’re all old enough to understand the power that their words can possess, and old enough to accept the consequences of them.

But perhaps what we need remember even more than the fact that these student-athletes are adults is the fact that in many ways they’re still kids, and they’re prone to making mistakes.

What they say does have an impact on their reputation and the reputation of the players and program around them, but if their right to say what they’re thinking and feeling is taken away, where does this leave us? Where does it leave them?

It’s also important to remember that not every athlete out there is using social media sites to post things that cause their school’s public relations representatives to cringe. In fact, the majority of them aren’t.

For many sports followers, social media sites have become a central part of their fandom, especially in the world of professional athletics. Not only are sites like Twitter some of the quickest and easiest ways to learn breaking news about your teams, but they also provide a rare and exciting connection between athletes and fans that was unattainable prior to the dawn of social networking sites.

In the world of college sports, these sites have the potential to bridge the sometimes wide gap between student athletes and the student body.

Social media sites shine a light on athletes, professional and collegiate alike, that allows us to see them in different ways. They offer a window into their lives as real people, not just the ones we see on the court or field. What that window shows lies entirely in the hands of the athlete, and that’s part of the beauty.

ADAM ROSENBLOOM

Though all forms of social media offer plenty of advantages, there comes a point where their uses are no longer considered appropriate.

For athletes, both professional and collegiate, utilizing Facebook, Twitter and others platforms creates many conflicts of interests.

Houston Texans running back Arian Foster, to use a recent example, posted a picture of an MRI taken on his hampering left hamstring. The tweet, which was designed to jokingly downgrade the seriousness of his injury, was posted without the consent of the team.

Injuries, more so in college athletics than professional, have always been kept quiet and out of the public eye, as was desired by the university or franchise. Keeping information in a bubble limits outside opinions, whether it be a doctor suggesting a surgery or a head coach choosing not to prepare for a player’s presence on the field. However, despite the desire remaining the same, athletes have taken matters into their own hands, releasing documents, photos and information not meant to be public.

To use an example closer to home, consider Binghamton’s own star guard Andrea Holmes, whose current injury (suffered at the end of last season) is being kept confidential while the potential of her team taking the court without her to begin its season remains unknown. The athletic department has, for the most part, kept her status quiet. The department has no control over whether or not Holmes chooses to disclose information via Facebook or Twitter, but they should.

In an age when privacy is rapidly disappearing, it has become extremely difficult to run an organization from the inside. Both athletic departments and professional franchises should be able to monitor, or even limit, the use of social media by their players.

Another issue, in addition to disclosing injuries, is the tendency of athletes to be both inappropriate and, well, stupid.

Take Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back Rashard Mendenhall, who tweeted following the death of Osama bin Laden:

“What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…”

I’m sure the Steelers were thrilled with the reputation their franchise player was building for himself. His actions brought attention to the franchise, but certainly not the type of coverage they were looking for.

That’s professional sports. Being inappropriate and controversial might have an even bigger impact when done by college athletes.

If an athlete chooses to post something inappropriate, such as a racial slur, it not only represents the college’s athletic department, but the college as a whole as well.

Social media presents so many more opportunities to generate negative coverage and controversy than the opposite. If a small child follows his favorite football player on Twitter, and the athlete chooses to tweet using expletives and slurs, what kind of message does that send?

As long as the First Amendment exists, it will be difficult to keep athletes away from social media. But for the benefit of all, maybe it’s time that something is done.