The Immense Impact That Twitter has had on the Professional Sports World

               

                      Prominent athletes that use Twitter daily.
Lance Artmstrong, Tony La Russa,
Mark Sanchez, Shaquille O'neal

                

Mr. Kevin Blackistone, the Shirley Povich Chair at the University of Maryland, is an expert in the world of sports journalism. He writes for The Washington Post, and he is a panelist on the TV show, Around the Horn, which airs on ESPN.
 
Blackistone believes that Twitter has added a new dimension to professional sports. It has completely changed the average fan's experience.



Regularly, ESPN will highlight athletes' complaining over Twitter on their famed TV show, SportsCenter. Because of this, these athletes come under a lot of scrutiny. Blackistone disagrees with this, and he is an advocate of allowing athletes to tweet what's on their mind.



Chad Ochocinco, NFL wide receiver for the New England Patriots, has tweeted 34,926 times. Most of his tweets aren't important enough to give a second look. Blackistone, who has only tweeted 2,921 times, tries to tweet relevant information that will be significant to the public.

Twitter has allowed fans to connect with athletes on a whole new level. It has also allowed news of player acquisitions, injuries, or punishments to travel extremely efficiently. It has helped shift sports journalism from the pages of a newspaper, to Safari on a MacBook. Nothing will ever be the same.