Pittsburgh Steeler safety Mike Mitchell didn't mince words with fans recently in a Twitter rant after the fan said he was the worst free agent signing in team history. Mitchell understandably didn't agree with the criticism and had a few choice words that culminated with Mitchell telling the fan to "kill himself." I'm not the PR director for the Steelers, but I'd have to say that whoever that is couldn't be happy with Mitchell's course of action in the situation as it's sure to cause quite a mess.
Mike Mitchell's comments are just another case of a professional or amateur athlete taking to social media with a lack of control and posting inappropriate content. Whether it's Mitchell, or Brandon Marshall of the Chicago Bears offering a Detroit Lions fan $25,000 to go the rounds with him or Stevie Johnson formally of the Buffalo Bills cussing out the Almighty after Johnson dropped a game winning catch the negative publicity seems to heavily outweigh the positives of social media when it comes to connecting fans to their favorite players.
Social Media has transcended how players interact with the public nowadays. There is no filter. There aren't team officials saying, "He isn't available for comment," well maybe there still are but then the players are just going to Twitter and commenting there. There also isn't any filters when it comes to content. Players, whether good or bad, can say literally whatever they want. For instance former Cardinals running back Rashard Mendenhall had some comments that caused a lot of controversy when Osama Bin Laden was killed. In a time of national pride Mendenhall tweeted angrily wondering why anyone could celebrate death in the manner that Americans were. An idea, which honestly carries some validity to it, but no the less the public viewed Mendenhall's comments as unpatriotic and as a representative of arguably "America's sport" that was no way to think.
So essentially social media is a lose-lose situation, at least the way I described it. Well it isn't all bad for the athletes as long as they keep control of the content they are created or curating. A great example in my opinion is LeBron James. The newly returned King of Cleveland and his new merry band of followers aren't off to the start that most Ohioans had hoped for when their prodigal son came home and they shipped the number one overall picks from the last two drafts for Kevin Love to form the new "Big Three" in basketball. I don't know if fans were calling for heads, but they were close. The King took to twitter to put a friendly reminder in all of his subjects' ears. His message was simple, everyone relax and it'll all be fine. Time will tell if the Cleveland crazies do as their King asks, but at least they are getting positive feedback from their superstar.
Whether it is healthy updates about the team, a friendly message or a retweet from your favorite player or a picture from the life of American sports royalty the chance to connect with these athletes that we as a population have anointed as Gods is very appealing. So when it's done in the correct manner social media can not only be fun, but a great way to connect athletes and fans together.
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