Meek Mill isn’t the only person who recently found out that social media can have drastic real life repercussions.
Notre Dame defensive lineman Jay Hayes won’t be with his teammates on Saturday when they take on UMass thanks to a set of tweets he sent off this week.
“When a coach stops coaching you..that’s when you jus gotta move on,” Hayes tweeted. “Gotta get this natty (national title) and I’m out.”
Hayes later deleted those tweets, but in 2015, once it’s out there, it’s out there.
As someone who follows student-athletes on social media, I’m not surprised in the least bit.
I try to keep it in perspective, as many of these young men and women are legally adults, but don’t yet understand the potential repercussions of what they are caught saying and doing on social media. If social media was around when previous generations, no doubt many folks would have found themselves getting in all kinds of trouble. And at the end of the day, they are 19 and 20-year-old kids who have grown up with Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, so it’s like second nature for them to go online and vent.
But Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly made a statement that is undeniably true.
As someone who follows student-athletes on social media, I’m not surprised in the least bit.
I try to keep it in perspective, as many of these young men and women are legally adults, but don’t yet understand the potential repercussions of what they are caught saying and doing on social media. If social media was around when previous generations, no doubt many folks would have found themselves getting in all kinds of trouble. And at the end of the day, they are 19 and 20-year-old kids who have grown up with Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, so it’s like second nature for them to go online and vent.
But Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly made a statement that is undeniably true.
“You have to think before you hit send, and what you have to do is knock on my door instead of hitting the send button,” Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly told reporters Thursday. “If he has a job at Google and talks about his boss that way, he probably is not going to have a job the next day.”
Throughout the three years or so I’ve been doing this, I’ve seen posts by athletes that made me laugh and fear for the future all at the same time.
Like it or not, you are accountable for what you post on social media when you are a public figure, which includes college athletes. If you’re going to have an account with your face/photo of you in your school’s jersey and info identifying you as an athlete, please believe folks are watching you and do what you have to to make sure your Twitter Fingers don’t have you following in Mr. Hayes’ footsteps.