It was a simple question toward two different NFL players who responded the same. Why do you Twitter, Facebook, Yardbarker, MySpace?"To get in contact and reach out to another level of fans I would never get to connect with," Terrell Owens of the Bills said. "I had Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and its an interactive way for me to connect with all my fans."
Said Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett: "I like to have fun. It's a chance for me to interact with people I don't know, which is the best thing ever. It's pretty fun. The blogging I do is a chance for me to express my mind."
The Internet has taken over, if you haven't noticed. Websites like Yardbarker, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have become social networking sites for pro athletes to interact with fans.
Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb uses Yardbarker to speak with fans, sometimes in place of talking to the media.
"McNabb likes Yardbarker because it's his voice," said Alana Nguyen, director of programming for Yardbarker. "The media obviously will follow Donovan's blog. Now he has a real voice of his own."
Yardbarker has roughly 100 athletes blogging for them. Numerous athletes have Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts. In the last two weeks, Owens has broken news on his Twitter account, accusing Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and quarterback Tony Romo of getting him released by the Cowboys. Then, earlier this week, Owens' bodyguard and realtor were house-hunting and were told by a homeowner that he/she didn't want to rent to Owens because of potential drama.
Owens, when told of this, got on his computer and "tweeted" it (the term used for posting a message on Twitter).
Owens said he got numerous responses from people who said they would love to rent or sell their homes to him.
However, there is drama surrounding the social sites. St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa is suing Twitter, claiming an unauthorized page was used to make fun of his drunken driving and two Cardinals pitchers who have died in recent years. LaRussa says the blog post damaged his reputation and caused him emotional distress.
"I'm not discussing it except to say that our foundation attorney is taking care of it," LaRussa told the Associated Press.
In late May, someone posed as Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on three sites -- Facebook, MySpace and Twitter -- and said he had skin cancer.
Roethlisberger denied the claims.
Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware supposedly tweeted that he was close to a long-term contract extension with the team. Yet Ware said he doesn't have a Twitter account and that the NFL is looking into what happened.
Nguyen said Yardbarker makes athletes use a security clearance to blog. And if Yardbarker officials don't believe the athlete, he has to pass a certain amount of questions and, in some cases, send Nguyen a copy of his or her drivers license to prove who they are.
"It's hard to decipher which is which," Owens said regarding the real blog pages of athletes. "What if I didn't (blog). What if I wasn't on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. Somebody would still be going out there saying this was me. I don't know how you can really get around it."
Bennett blogs for the Dallas Morning News website and does a weekly video on YouTube, called MartyB TV. Bennett said he enjoys blogging about things other than football.
Giants defensive end Justin Tuck doesn't have Twitter or Facebook accounts, and he's not hooked up with Yardbarker. Tuck is cautious about dealing with social sites, though many of his teammates are doing it.
"I did some reading on Twitter and they have some new software to make it hard to impersonate anybody," Tuck said. "If you can impress me to get in a club, have fun, but when you're online you can say anything that could damage somebody's rep."
Nguyen said these sites are not meant to replace newspapers, or legit websites such as FanHouse, SI.com and ESPN.com. In fact, Nguyen said the sites are used to help athletes and sometimes journalists to report the news.
Giants tight end George Wrighster said that social network sites provide another avenue for athletes to talk with fans in addition to going through traditional media.
"The guys not only blog about themselves, but about guys on the team or other things," Wrighster said. "It gives fans a new perspective."
