Tweeting Troubles for Athletes

Twitter, a free social networking site that allows its users to send and read "status updates" or tweets, is the new social media hype. Everyone who is anyone is on Twitter. Actors, Models, Singers, Athletes and even us normal folk tweet on a regular basis. Even Politicians dabble in Twitter! Just the other day, Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey responded to a tweet from one of the citizens of Newark asking him to send over some people to shovel their 65 year old father's driveway. Booker tweeted back that he would be there himself to do it and he was! Talk about getting the message out!

Unfortunately, Twitter isn't just a story of good Samaritans. Actors, Models, Singers and Athletes are all on Twitter to help connect with their friends and share their personal lives in ways they never could before. Sometimes that comes with a BIG price to pay.

Athletes are starting to get fined for some of their status updates, and even the time of day they tweet. On December 12th, Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks posted an upbeat and positive tweet about his team and was fine $7,500!Apparently a few months ago the NBA came up with tweet rules and a player is not allowed to tweet 45 minutes before and after each game. Poor Jennings was a little too excited about his win and violated that time period. $7,500 later, he tweets "I understand I got fined, but 7500? For being happy over a win, you would of thought I said something bad. I mean it was a big win for us."

Jennings isn't the only NBA player getting fined, rumor has it that a bunch of players are accidentally violating the time period and coughing up big money including The Phoenix Suns' Amare Stoudemire and Charlotte Bobcats' forward Tyson Chandler. I wonder if someone gets paid to monitor the Twitter pages of these athletes? So much for team spirit!

Information from Mashable