A Grey Area
With Andy Roddick getting cautioned by the US Open management because he is disclosing just a little too much when he twits, it really opens a big basket of whether sports stars should get a chance to do whatever they like or have to adhere to the rules of the sport that they play in and have restrictions on what they tell the public.
These days many fans have large followings and post daily whenever they feel that they have some information to share. Often it talks about whether they had a good match, or a bad match, or maybe when they might actually recover from injuries.
To a spectator, fan and avid readers of posts on the internet, this is actually what the internet and this new world of communication is all about. But then maybe to the old school administrators, this may not be what they want. Is it too much for the betting community or for sponsors that a player feels that they pulled out of a match with a slightly sore shoulder, and decides to twit, or send a message to fans about it?
Everybody is actually concerned for their favourite sports star, so must we limit the information that is presented to the wider community and media? This has to be a very short term restriction. Maybe what goes on in the locker room can stay in the locker room, but what goes on with players, match conditions and how their neck feels from that hard pillow, fans and the gambling community really have a good reason to know, and should not have restricted access to it.
If fans suddenly see that twits and other fan web pages are no longer posting up the true story, and just synthetic rubbish to just appease them so that sponsors are happy, they will simply turn off and look for new sources of information that are more closer to reality and engaging.
