From CBSSports.com
Review by Matt Butta in SRM 334 (section 1)
The current event that my group presented on was written by Will Brinson who wrote a response to a negatively written article about the Houston Texans. Dan Shaughnessy, a columnist for the Boston Globe wrote that the Texans were a terrible team and had no chance to beat the New England Patriots during Sunday’s divisional playoff game. Shaughnessy said that this was the first time the Patriots had two straight bye weeks because of how easy of a win the Texans game would be. Shaughnessy also had several insults about the Texans including calling them “fraudulent” as well as other things (Brinson, 2013). The article that we used talks about how Arian Foster, starting running back for the Texans, changed his avatar on Twitter to a picture of the article written by Shaughnessy and about how the article is not accurate. I agree with Brinson’s article completely. He talks about how the Texans are a good team with excellent players and how they have a chance to win the game on Sunday. He also talks about how they are not favored to win but should be taken seriously as a contender in this weekend’s game. This article is relevant to the course because it shows how professional athletes use social media to gain motivation for their games. It also shows how athletes use social media to display their response to criticism whether the criticism is positive or negative. Four years ago if something like this occurred chances are Arian Foster would have used a different approach to handle the situation because social media was not used as often as it is now. Now players use social media not only as a way to connect with fans but to also to motivate their teammates and themselves. With all the changes in social media it will be interesting to see how athletes will use social media in the future.
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Review by Forrest Lodge in SRM 334 (section 1)
This article brings up the controversy of Dan Shaughnessy’s column in the Boston Globe about how much of a blessing it was for the Patriots to draw the Texans in the second round of the NFL Playoffs. The main thing in this article however is how Texans running-back Arian Foster acknowledged Shaughnessy’s column and even took a screenshot of it and made his Twitter avatar. The Twitter world nowadays is huge and it spits out news and information like wildfire, so once Foster changed his Twitter avatar to the picture of the article, everyone and their mother’s found out about this article. It is not uncommon for players to find out about harsh comments and opinions of sports analysts and other critics, however Foster took it to the next level by putting the word out through social media. What we did notice through the YouTube video that we found was that Foster never actually commented on the article at all, and that the only thing he did was put the picture of the article as his Twitter picture. I feel like this was a proper way to handle the situation because it is a form of motivation for not only himself but for players, coaches, and fans of the Texans. Ultimately I think it is a prime example of how social media plays a major factor within sports today because of the endless access and availability that it provides to everyone in this world with a computer or smart phone. Twitter allows anyone with an account to connect directly with athletes and celebrities who also have accounts and that is something that we haven’t been able to do for all that long and I feel that it has changed the way athletes handle the public because they can also connect back with anyone they want through social media.
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Review by Sean Petrizzi in SRM 334 (section 1)
After the Houston Texans advanced passed the Wild Card Round to face the New England Patriots Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote an article claiming the Patriots were the “first team in NFL history to get back-to-back byes before advancing to the conference championship game.” This was in reference to the Week 14 matchup where the Patriots outplayed the Texans to the tune of 42 to 14. Texans running back Arian Foster posted three paragraphs of the article as his Twitter avatar without comment. It was seen by many as a move to post bulletin board material for all to see.
I feel that Arian Foster handled this situation perfectly. By leaving out any commentary on the article Foster showed he took offense from the article but did not complain which would have opened him up to criticism of being overly sensitive to the media. He brought the article to the attention to people outside of New England and possibly was trying to bring it to the attention of his teammates to help motivate them. My criticism would be of Shaughnessy. Football fans will know that the New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick is very reserved with his comments and is very calculated in what he says as to not provide the typical “bulletin board material” that may help other teams be motivated to win more than they already are in the ultra-competitive NFL. By writing this article, Shaughnessy flies right in the face of that train of thought. As someone who has covered Belichick and will continue to do so, I wonder whether Shaughnessy’s relationship with Belichick will be slightly strained now.
This article shows that changing forms of media are affecting the interaction between sports reporters and athletes. It is now much easier for athletes to respond to criticism from sports reporters and these responses can be seen by almost anyone at any time.
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