You know, I totally forgot about the Scoop-Jonny-Rick sexual assault saga from two years ago. I completely blocked it from my memory (unlike Georgetown and UConn fans).
I was perfectly happy living in ignorant bliss until I came across the aftermath of Scoop Jardine's late-night tweeting escapade Tuesday night via Orange Fizz.
"ScoopJardine11 #collegetaughtme that groupies really exist! But we just call them #teamplayers! Ahaha"
"ScoopJardine11 #collegetaughtme if you f a girl an the news get out they denie it and say he only gave me head! Bye girl!!"
"KMaherNews12 So if you’re Scoop Jardine and you were accused of sexual assault in college would you be tweeting about groupies, drunk girls and sex?"
Good point, Kevin Maher. And it's a lesson that Scoop learned very quickly, just how bad an idea that was. After apologizing on the next day, his Twitterfeed was suspended Wednesday night.
So what happens now? My guess is that Jim Boeheim finally knows what The Twitter is, and finally knows what blogs are and finally knows how the Internet works and Syracuse moves that much closer to regulating how it's athletes interact on social media. The D.O. is keeping a close eye on how the university reacts:
On a serious note, though, it’ll be more interesting to see how, as an athletic department, Syracuse handles this situation. And it’ll be interesting to see if there is any policy change in athletes’ use of social media. Twitter is a favorite of many high-profile SU athletes on both the Orange basketball and football teams.Other schools have taken action in the form of banning Twitter and other social media, most recently Miami this season, although head coach Randy Shannon is gone now. Earlier this year, Oklahoma suspended wide receiver Jaz Reynolds after he tweeted this after a shooting at the University of Texas
Whether you feel like the Fizz was out of line for calling attention to Scoop's tweets (and some of you do), remember, Twitter is a public forum. It's a chat room that give you the option to decide who sees your messages and who's messages you want to see. Scoop knew that his feed was being seen by thousands of people outside his sphere of influence. If you don't want people to use your social media interactions against you, limit your social media interactions.
That said, I hope Syracuse doesn't crack down on it's athletes using social media. It's a useful tool for bridging the gap between players, coaches and fans. If anything, education on preventing situations like this is far more beneficial to the SU community than an outright ban. It will also showcase great restraint on the part of the University and Athletics Department instead of a reactionary stance. That said, I won't be shocked if Boeheim (or Gross) does lay down the hammer.
Probably the most shocking aspect of all this...I had nothing to do with it.