Chad Ochocinco’s followers don’t respond kindly to tweet about NFL lockout
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Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco simply appeared to be trying to strike up a conversation among his Twitter followers when he tweeted a link to an article about some players’ struggles during the NFL lockout.
And that’s just what happened, although it probably wasn’t the thoughtful exchange of opinions he might have envisioned. Instead, he found himself responding to an apparently unexpected surge of negative comments from followers outraged at the idea of professional football players as sympathetic characters.
Twackle.com registered a 780% increase in tweets associated with Ochocinco in the moments after his initial post of ‘What are your thoughts on the lockout after reading these stories?’ followed by a link to an article by Rick Riley on ESPN.com.
At first, Ochocinco tried explaining himself a couple of times (‘Sure most of u r disgusted with this article n can’t fathom the thought of having sympathy 4 us as players but all aren’t making millions’), but that didn’t seem to help.
Neither did such comments as ‘Don’t be mean to me,just sharing my thoughts kind sir’ and ‘I’m not responsible for the lockout!!!’ and ‘I thought my followers loved me!We should be able to talk about any and everything.Communication is key and y’all acting up.’
But other than one instance of exchanging obscenities with a follower, Ochocinco seemed to have maintained his composure through it all. At various points, he tried to change the subject and threatened to delete his Twitter account before finally appealing to NFL Commisioner Roger Goodell in a tweet: ‘@nflcommishexcuse me can we get a deal done or at least show some sign we are close?I mentioned the Lockout n my twitter is like WW2 ...’
No response yet from Goodell -- maybe he’s not checking his Twitter account.
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-- Chuck Schilken
