It's said that if you want to get to know someone, watch what they do and who they are online, and that's certainly true for the Draft prospects on Twitter. And who are they? The total list is at the link to Tweeting Athletes.com, but its equally notable for who's not on it: former Auburn Quarterback Cam Newton.
Yes, Newton's had an active Twitter account in the past, but, wary of a media seeming to look for a wrong move from him, Newton smartly went off the grid once he got into Draft season.
But that's not true for his competitors. The following top 2011 NFL Draft quarterbacks have active Twitter accounts: Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder, Colin Kaepernick, Tyrod Taylor, and one not noted by Tweeting Athletes, Ryan Mallett @ryan_mallett_15. (It should be noted that former Washington QB Jake Locker has a Twitter account here (@JakeLocker) , but it appears to be ran by a PR firm, because it just includes updates about him, not his comments.)
In terms of total tweets, the most active quarterback from that perspective has been Nevada's Colin Kaepernick, he leads the others with 2,184 tweets; Florida's Christian Ponder has the least at 700. Missouri's Gabbert, the top ranked twitterer as QB, is just behind Colin K with 1,792 tweets. Tyrod Taylor has 868.
And what do they tweet about?
The Twitter tweeting style of the signal callers is about as different as the players themselves. Kaepernick, the favorite NFL prospect of this blogger behind Cam Newton and with Blaine Gabbert and Jake Locker, has a bit of "brotha" in his Tweets, for example:
Kaepernick10 Colin Kaepernick
@JMillz90 take yo self to sleep bruh no one wans hear this nonsense lol
15 hours ago
Colin tweets to friends like Nebraska receiver @Niles_Paul. Kaepernick's tweets are compact, and mostly are not about people, but to people. When he tweets about someone, it's commonly in memorial, or to report something his Mom, friend, or agent told him. I've not seen an insulting tweet, or a tweet that could be read as such from Colin Kaepernick. If it's there, it's hard to find. That's saying something for a person who's now under the hot light of scrutiny, yet tweets as much as he does.
Blaine Gabbert's a different story.
The number two Twitterer has a lively and active tweet style. Like Colin Kaepernick, Blaine uses Twitter to communicate with his friends, who are fellow athletes like Missouri Basketball's Kim English, and his NFL Draft competitor Christian Ponder, and Wisconsin Defensive Lineman J.J. Watt. Gabbert (@BlaineGabbert) also tweets a lot about fishing, and overall reveals himself to be a likeable person.
But where Blaine differs from Kolin is in using Twitter in a way that can be called "candid."
This space got after Gabbert for issuing a tweet referring to someone as "He's an idiot," and while I was bombarded with emails and tweets defending Gabbert, never stopped reviewing his tweets. His latest one's a doosy, especially if you fly as much as I do:
BlaineGabbert Blaine Gabbert
I love watching people spaz out in the airport. Like dude....chilllllll out your flight is delayed half an hou
So, if Blaine loves "watching people spaz out in the airport," he probably scans YouTube for videos like this one, where a woman is, well, spazzing out in the airport:
But see, the problem is, rather than Gabbert coming to the aide of a person like this woman, if only to calm her, he's more likely to sit back and laugh at her or this guy in a coffee shop.
Or maybe Blaine would just tweet about it.
By contrast Christian Ponder's tweets are much like Kaepernick's but with the occasional product endorsement:
cponder7 Christian Ponder
Best thing I've ever eaten: Red Velvet Whoopie Pie from Starbucks
2 Apr Favorite Retweet Reply
Starbucks should be ringing his agent about now.
And Ponder does follow and answer the tweets of ESPN's Erin Andrews:
cponder7 Christian Ponder
@ErinAndrews I feel like you are always crying in your tweets
14 Apr
Who, apparently was following Ponder, but not any more:
cponder7 Christian Ponder
@ErinAndrews I tried to DM you but apparently you stopped following me....cool...
14 Apr
Ryan Mallett's Tired Of Airports
Former Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett also has less tweets, at 977, and uses his Twitter account to communicate with friends, and tell his whereabouts. Like his competitors, Mallett has been traveling around America, visiting various NFL Teams. It's obvious, he's had enough:
Ryan_Mallett_15 Ryan Mallett
Tired of living in hotel rooms for a while. It has been a great process but it's almost over. #veryblessed
18 hours ago
Mallett's tweets are also compact, and contain little that's news or revealing. In other words, no controversy here.
Mike Vick's Student
Former Virginia Tech QB Tyrod Taylor has a lot fewer tweets, and mostly about his appearances like with Michael Vick:
YoungMogulDMV AJ
by TyTaylor5
This Saturday @TyTaylor5 @MikeVick @3_B_RAN will be at Tech Bookstore 118 South Main St Blacksburg,VA tickets on sale teg.ticketleap.com/teg
6 hours ago
Taylor, (@TyTaylor5) when not answering tweets from friends - he makes few quotes, and doesn't retweet much and avoids tweets that could be considered insulting or questionable, does reveal his relationship with Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Mike Vick, who's teaching him how to run the Bill Walsh Offense:
TheEliteGroup The Elite Group
by TyTaylor5
RT @MikeVick: About to teach Tyrod Taylor @TyTaylor5 the west coast offense......Each one teach one!!
5 Apr
This is part one of this series. In the nest installment, we'll compare the Twitter accounts of the top five candidates for the 2011 NFL Draft.
The bottom line is Twitter's a great way for football execs and fans to tell what kind of person their potential draft pick is, and even to ask themselves 'Do we want to spend millions on this person?' Right now, all of the 2011 NFL Draft Prospects I've reviewed seem to be OK, but Blaine Gabbert should cool some of his desire to issue tweets that could be read as insensitive; after all, he's going to be the face of someone's franchise.
Stay tuned.
