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 Linda Thomas
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Romar.jpg
The University of Washington men's basketball team, with head coach Lorenzo Romar, kicked off their season with a Sunday night win 85-63 over Loyola. (AP File photo)

Dawgs hate birds - UW warns about too much tweeting

November 12, 2012 @ 6:41 pm (Updated: 8:08 pm - 11/12/12 )

Athletic departments are too touchy about Twitter.

Washington State head coach Mike Leach recently banned his players from Twitter. If he sees one peep posted they'll be kicked off the team.

Now the University of Washington has warned a local sports writer he's been tweeting too much.

The University of Washington football and basketball beat writer for the Tacoma News Tribune was just doing his job one tweet at a time.

He was tweeting too much according to the UW's live coverage policy for credentialed media.

The Tribune's Todd Dybas posted about 80 tweets about Sunday's basketball game before he wrote: "I was reprimanded by the University of Washington for tweeting too much during a live event."

Seattle University's head men's basketball coach posted a message for the reporter. Coach Cameron Dollar tweeting: "You are welcome to Tweet away at KeyArena! Come on over to the land of no restrictions."

The UW's policy states, "Periodic updates of scores, statistics or other brief descriptions of the competition throughout the event are acceptable, as long as they do not exceed the recommended frequency.

What is excessive? By their definition, Dybas was over the top. The UW policy allows 20 total in-game updates for basketball and 45 total in-game updates for football.

Dybas was providing a service for those who want to follow UW basketball, but couldn't go to the game. I doubt his tweeting was hurting ticket sales.

While there are limits on reporters, fans may repeatedly tweet.

Many universities have in-season social network bans for players, so WSU's Leach isn't alone in restricting his players from Twitter. A few have rules for reporters.

Most professional sports leagues only ban tweeting while games are being played and for a period of time before and after games.

Good thing, or we'd miss sweet tweets like this from Russell Wilson: "Wow! I am so blessed to be a Hawk! Man I love this Seahawks team and this city!!!"

Twitter and Facebook postings are protected by the First Amendment, so it's difficult to ban athletes from social media completely.

By LINDA THOMAS

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Comments (3)


  • Add A Comment

  • soo purletiv wrote...
    I for one have no interest in
    November 12, 2012 8:49 pm
    tweeting nor facebooking. I mean, really, who cares if I am shopping at the local QFC and picking up diapers for the youngest? And if you do care, you need to get out more yourself.

    However, the ban on players is more of a case of ignorance on the part of coaches and admins.! Curfews are fine and understandable for certain team functions. But to tell a player he or she can't communicate with others through a specific medium is showing a tendency towards socialmediaphobia, which is more apt to affect older non flexible people... Not sure if there is any treatments developed yet, but it does seem to be contagious.

    The content and context of the tweet and or facebook post may have consequences, but to outright ban ALL players for the actions of SOME of the players is quite silly.

    The case of this reporter on the other hand is a wholly different topic......

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  • DJFavorite wrote...
    A bit excessive
    November 13, 2012 7:42 am
    I think these coaches have gone a bit too far. While I can see a ban on tweeting during a game (hey they shouldn't have their phones on the field anyway), and they can be banned from tweeting anything about the team, training, plays, etc. To totally ban them from socializing is a bit too much. And with regards to reporters, I believe there can be some guidelines/rules with regards to tweeting during the game and training sessions, if they get to attend. These coaches need to get into the 21st century.
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  • ten4goodbuddy wrote...
    All for it
    November 13, 2012 12:05 pm
    At the college level. They have options: play and don't tweet, don't play and tweet. Simple.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }