If you ever have a few minutes of down time and want to amuse yourself, I have a suggestion. Just zero in on someone who had a screw up of some type, even a minor one, head to Twitter and read what’s being said about the individual.
Bear in mind I’m only talking about items that would decidedly fall into the dust-up category. I’m not referring to anything serious, just molehills that are being turned into mountains.
Sunday’s Twitter star is Rams tight end Jared Cook (@jaredcook89) who had an imperfect moment on the sidelines. Cook had dropped what was a sure TD pass from QB Austin Davis. The Rams had to settle for a field goal in a game that was getting away from them against Dallas (the Cowboys rallied from a 21-0 deficit to win 34-31), and Cook was apparently pretty upset with himself. Cook got up from his seat on the bench and as he was walking down the sideline, Davis appeared to want to give him some encouragement. Cook evidently wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, and shoved Davis out of the way. He was then surrounded by some teammates and after what looked to be a second or two of some yelling, the incident was over. Except that it wasn’t.
It’s 2014 and pretty much everything under the sun is now a taped highlight. Naturally, the Cook moment blew up and he started getting ripped. Cook eventually addressed the situation on his Twitter home page, and issued a substantial apology. For me, that’s case closed. This was a very minor incident, and hardly an isolated one, although you’d never know it from the outpouring of hate Tweets that are now being directed at Cook.
All I can say to those spewing venom toward Cook is the following. One, you probably never played sports or at the very least, have forgotten about your own experiences. Sometimes it’s more verbal than physical, but it absolutely takes place virtually everyday, whether in an actual game or during practice. This was not that big a deal.
Beyond that, it’s just typical Twitter. Imperfect people who can’t wait to rip into a mistake that gets made by someone else. And again, it’s important to note that this wasn’t a criminal action that might warrant the hatred to some extent. This was a really trivial lapse in judgment by Jared Cook, and suddenly he’s today’s worst person in the world of sports.
It’s really ridiculous. I’m a Twitter fan, as it’s a great avenue for me to promote myself while interacting with others, and it’s also a phenomenal source of breaking information that can be very useful.
But I have started blocking those I find to be consistently negative, or who are simply trying to pick a verbal fight. If you look at the Cook apology tweets and then read the accompanying comments from people who’ve never met the guy and know zero about him, you’ll know exactly what I mean. And if Jared Cook didn’t know about these types previously, it’s fair to assume that he does now.
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