How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Twitter may be the future — but that doesn't mean everyone should tweet.
Professional athletes' tweets often offer nonsensical personal anecdotes that usually vary from unimportant to appalling. The NBA, afraid of Twitter's power, forbade players from tweeting in the locker room during games this upcoming season. NYU Athletics doesn't have any specific rules about tweeting, but they have provided their athletes with an alternative way to express themselves.
This season, the NYU Athletics department has created a blog feature on its website that allows two athletes per team at NYU to blog about their current season, teammates and hopes for the future. Unlike professional athletes, whose tweets are sometimes self-centered, many of the blog authors are insightful and focus on "we" as opposed to "me."
Take Zach Maher, senior captain of the men's cross country team, for example. He wrote on his blog on Oct. 11 about how much depth the cross country team has, praising the underclassmen. On Oct. 7, Maher reflected on his last meet ever at Van Cortland Park and how it "has had a profound impact on myself, both as a runner and as a person."
"Lots of people think it's crazy we have a cross country team in the city and some think we run on treadmills," Maher said. "The blog is a more reflective tool that gives people outside a better understanding of what we are all about."
Senior Lucy Dolly Caires is a co-captain of the NYU women's soccer team and a blogger for the site.
"I want to show our personality of our team and show how much we all love each other," Caires said. "I also want the players who don't get mentioned as much on the team site to get recognized."
Jeffrey Bernstein, director of sports information at NYU, said the blogs help to show student-athletes' perspective, as opposed to just the athletic department's.
"It helps when students are writing rather than when we're writing," Bernstein said. "It makes things a little more personal between students and readers."
While the battle over athletes and Twitter remains a distraction for professional franchises, NYU is using a tool that could be very constructive in the fan-athlete relationship. Nowhere on the athletic websites of universities such as Duke, UCLA or Texas is a similar blog presented.
Maybe other schools should emulate NYU. Then maybe one day, when their athletes are paid to hit home runs, hit jumpers and throw touchdowns, they can inspire fans through their writing — not make them roll their eyes through tidbits of nonsense.
