Green Bay Packers ban Twitter on the job

The Green Bay Packers, not known as one of the most progressive organizations on earth, has decided to fine players $1701 every time they “tweet” on Twitter during official functions.

Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported the story originally and it was confirmed on Packers running back Ryan Grant‘s Twitter account, where he said, “Soo the word issssss…NO tweets during any team activity(which i think is fine since we are focused) but that means.only… expect tweets in the morning before we go to work, possibly around lunch time and at night once we done..i dont want that heavy fine lol”.

Packers linebacker Nick Barnett tested the patience of his coaches with a tweet saying only “Am tweeting during practice!!!”… but that was at 8:53am on Saturday morning, followed quickly by “SIKE!!!”. Jermichael Finley and B.J. Raji are two other Packers who will have to watch the timestamps on their tweets.

One can understand why this policy has been instituted, given the propensity for NFL players to actually be themselves in social media as opposed to the media-managed blancmanges their teams want them to be.