After an end-zone jostle on Sept. 25, the — albeit confused — ruling on the field gave the Seattle Seahawks a winning touchdown and subsequent 14-12 victory over the Green Bay Packers.
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As Seattle fans erupted in cheers, the commentators narrated the confusion, and in the end, the replacement referees upheld the touchdown call. Angry fans flooded Twitter with complaints about the call, and Seahawks’ guard TJ Lang voiced his opinion, too.
Got fucked by the refs.. Embarrassing. Thanks nfl
— TJ Lang (@TJLang70) September 25, 2012
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Fuck it NFL.. Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs.
— TJ Lang (@TJLang70) September 25, 2012
Maybe he hoped a follow-up tweet would drain the salt out of Roger Goddell's wounds or perhaps he felt remorse for his R-rated language, but less than a day later, he added to his prior statements:
Only thing I regret from my tweets are the F bombs.. Sorry bout that.
— TJ Lang (@TJLang70) September 25, 2012
He isn’t the first NFL player to be outspoken on social media, but it's unknown whether he'll join the ranks in those outspoken players who have been penalized for their tweets. Some teams have their own more specific rules and penalties in place for social media conduct, but here's a look into the general NFL's rules:
NFL's Social Media Rules
- The use of social media by NFL game officials and officiating department personnel is prohibited at any time.
- League policy allows for the use of social media or networking sites (including Twitter and Facebook) by players, coaches and football operations personnel up to 90 minutes before kickoff and after the game following media interviews.
- The use of these sites by these individuals is not permitted during the game, including halftime.
- No updates are permitted to be posted by the individual himself or anyone representing him during this prohibited time on his personal Twitter, Facebook or any other social media account.
The rules, however, didn't stop these offenders:
- 2010: Michael Oher tweeted about his sprained knee that removed him from a game, and it cost him $5,000.
- 2010: Chad Ochocinco sent out updates and resulted in a $25,000 fine: one tweet wasn't within the league's pre-game 90-minute rule, and the other occurred during gameplay.
- 2010: Terrell Owens tweeted within an hour of a game's kickoff and received a $5,000 fine.
- 2010: Darnell Dockett violated the 90-minute rule and paid $5,000.
- 2009: Antonio Cromartie's complaint about food served during training camp, which violated the Chargers' rule against discussing team matters over Twitter, ended up as $2,500.
Image courtesy of Flickr, charamelody
This story originally published on Mashable here.