NFL Running Back Claims He Received Death Threats on Twitter

Posted 01/27/2011 at 9:15am | by Paul Lilly

6

Comments

Print

For better or worse, more and more professional athletes are voicing their opinions about each other on Twitter, taking public things that often times should be kept private. One recent example involves Detroit Pistons forward Charles Villaneuva calling out Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett for allegedly calling him a cancer patient (Garnett denied the claim calling it a "major miscommunication").

Some felt Villanueva did the right thing by posting his criticism of Garnett's alleged comments, while others felt that whatever was said on the court should stay on the court. It appears those that favor the latter are losing out.

More recently, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was the target of near-instant criticism for sitting out most of the second half of the NFC playoff game with an injured knee. Players took to Twitter with harsh comments for Cutler's sideline act, including comments by Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew.

"Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now... When the going gets tough........QUIT ..," Maurice-Jones tweeted. "All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee... I played the whole season on one...," he wrote in a follow-up tweet.

Maurice-Jones later claimed that his comments were made in jest, which most found hard to believe, including a handful of commenters who supposedly issued death threats against the running back.

"I guess death threats towards me and my family isn't head line news but me tweeting my opinion about a person is... The society is backwards I guess we haven't came far enough as human beings," Maurice-Jones wrote in an expanded tweet.

Fair enough, but does anyone else miss the days when sports news was ruled by highlight reels, upsets, and even the occasional non-Twitter related controversy?