Pete Carroll makes Twitter and NFL Draft History

Today is a historic day in terms of social media and the NFL Draft. Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll Tweeted to his Tweeple about Notre Dame QB, Jimmy Clausen’s visit to Seahawks headquarters. Carroll had two tweets:

“Heard gil brandt wrote about our guys meeting w/ jimmy clausen... Gil's on the money again...”

“Our guys had a great mtg w/ jimmy & I got to talk w/ him during the mtg too-- he's awesome.... It was a big day for jimmy!

These tweets are significant for one of two reasons; either Pete Carroll can’t help but gush over the cool Californian because he has found his franchise QB of the future and will use his 6^th overall pick in the draft to select him or he is trying to bluff the rest of the world into believing they will draft him 6^th, so that they can trade out of that position and get more picks (remember…they also have the 14^th overall pick too).

Regardless…it is clear that we are in a new world and the NFL is adapting to it. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that an NFL coach has used Twitter to either spill the beans or transmit misinformation. And personally…I love it! The run-up to the draft is filled with so many lies and false impressions being circulated by the talking heads as is, so there is no reason why the coaches/players cannot get in on the fun and use Twitter to cut out the middle-man.

Ochocinco popularized Twitter for athletes. Now it is Pete Carroll who set the bar for the coaches. Tweet on tweeple…tweet on!

Las Vegas Loves a Winner

This city rides you when you are hot and fades you when you are not. Nothing is more apparent when you are staring at a wall of facebook status updates about how dismayed/upset/disappointed the world is in the UNLV Running Rebels and their first round exit in the NCAA basketball tournament.

This is the only town in America (other than Los Angeles) where the final five seconds of competition does more to shape how an entire city views the collective success/value of a team’s season than a complete season’s worth of work, effort, and results. Everything hinged on the last few seconds. If UNLV were to somehow defend UNI’s last possession and then score to win the game the Rebels would be celebrated and revered, regardless of what happened in the second round. But when Ali Farokhmanesh hit a three pointer five feet behind the line to go up by three in the closing seconds, in the minds of the fans, the Rebels went from potential Goliath slayers to goat slackers. In a related story, Farokhmanesh is now the longest 4 letter F-word in the UNLV and Kansas fan lexicon.

While it is understandable for Rebel fans to be saddened by the loss or disappointed that we will not get the chance to takedown the tournament’s overall number one rated team, Kansas; it is not understandable for individuals to let the last five seconds of the season moot an entire year of hard work. Remember…This team overachieved.

This entire year has been a work in progress in which two remaining starters from last year’s team were expected to come together with two transfer students, both of which had to sit out a year, and a center position that was, at best, a patchwork of players too young, too little skill, or playing too much out of position (I like Matt Shaw at power forward). Given these facts, the run the Rebels made this year should be applauded by fans, not defrauded.

Next year the team will return almost/all of its starters (Santee will graduate and , yes, he did begin most of the games, but I still wouldn't call him a starter, especially with Massamba getting the additional minutes down the stretch), which alone should lead to a visible improvement considering that Anthony Marshall and Justin Hawkins, both freshmen, contributed significant minutes to the Rebels, especially down the home stretch. Add to this Quintrell Thomas, a Kansas transfer, who is apparently a force to be reckoned with on the practice court versus the first team. Suddenly the Rebels look like they are on the verge of a special season.