Social

Last week, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports discussed how NFL teams are going deeper into background checking of potential draft picks by perusing their social network profiles. While taking a peek at Facebook, MySpace and other networking profiles is quite common for most employers, the fact that professional sports leagues are following suit is all the more alarming for future prospects.

In reading the piece, it made me think about how the leagues themselves are participating in social networks.

If there’s a pro outfit that has unquestionably made the most of the social networking scene, it’s the NBA. As of this post, the league’s Facebook page has over 700,000 fans, hundreds of official photos and videos and thousands of fan contributions (photos, videos, discussion threads, comments, etc). Plus, likely because of press received for some of its players using Twitter – which has been all the rage as of late within the marketing and advertising community without people having a concrete idea of its purpose – several teams in the Association and some media personalities have jumped on the bandwagon as a way to increase immediate fan interaction.

So what has this meant for the league?

For starters, social networking has created tremendous buzz around the games, even as an 82-game season can get long on the tooth for fan bases that won’t enjoy the postseason. In particular with Facebook’s popularity having soared in the last two years, their presence gives instantaneous feedback to any and everything NBA… even if that feedback tends to be nothing more than nonsensical rants that have nothing to do with the uploaded clip or status update.

The NBA has the youngest fan base of all the major sports and for the past twenty years, has been the most successful in bringing in younger fans of basketball into the fray. The A’s success thus far in social networking shouldn’t come as much of a shock.

What is a bit of a surprise is the lack of involvement from other pro leagues. You’d think that for a league that is slowly regaining its footing in the sports landscape that the NHL would be a bit more active on their pages (though having over 100,000 fans on Facebook isn’t too shabby).

You’d think that the most popular league in the United States, the NFL, would dominate Facebook, MySpace and others as they dominate television. The truth of the matter is that outside of fan-created groups and pages, the American Idol of sports doesn’t have much to speak of outside of its own internet portal and media partners.

You’d think because of the regional connections baseball teams create, Major League Baseball would be a leader in this realm. Its Advanced Media sets the bar for the Internet among the professional sports leagues across the globe, not just the United States. Yet, while its page of MLB Network is updated rather quickly, it seems as if the league hasn’t discovered the full potential of social networking just yet.

So, beyond what I might be able to see here, what are your thoughts on pro sports and the social media world? Is there room for improvement for the NBA? Should the other leagues continue to merely dip their hands in the pool or just dive in already? Does social networking increase your interest in games and their participants?

Say What?!?!: Baseball lost not only one of the best voices in sports, but anywhere in television. Respect due to Harry Kalas.

Graduation

You are about to graduate from college in about three weeks.

Outside the impressive beer pong skills you displayed in your four years as an undergrad, your greatest claim to fame was the time you managed to write up your entire senior thesis over the course of two days, a case of Red Bull and three interstitial one-hour naps.

You’re still waiting for the final grade, but you are also waiting on a decision from one of the country’s top financial services firms (sorry to anyone reading this from Bear Stearns).

Your classmates are very talented and for the most part, high-achieving. Some already have a job waiting for them at the start of June while others are either headed straight to graduate school or head back home to join the family business.

Of course, there is the mix of slackers who switched majors every semester, spent their entire senior year higher than the clouds and attached themselves to their XBoxes. Reality would hit them at some point, if it had not already, but that’s no concern of yours. You have fall-back interviews to get, loans to pay off and bedroom back home to move back to.

So you look around and see where your peers and friends end up after Commencement. The aforementioned financial services, advertising, film, insurance, non-profit, teaching, high-tech, you name it. Some are working for Fortune 500 companies; some are all about Mom-&-Pop. Some rigorously comb through transcripts and background checks and some “get a good vibe”.

The science of hiring prospective employees fresh out of school doesn’t seem to be that exact when you think about it. You had classes with these people. You were in the same organizations with these people. You had gotten ridiculously wasted with these people. And boy, do you have some dirt on these people. You never had disciplinarian problems. You maintained a decent GPA in a fairly tough curriculum. You balanced work with school and a social life. You didn’t try to cheat the system by calling a couple of alums – Mom and Dad. You understood college was the next step to becoming a functioning member of society, not four years of just beer, drugs and sex with an occasional class here and there.

College was just a chance to develop an identity for yourself and you did just that. You had your moments of college stupidity, sure. Yet, your outgoing personality and relentless curiosity are two qualities that your potential employers say they seek. Not to mention, you can get the job done. You may have not been a Rhodes Scholar, but you are certainly more capable to survive in the real world than these folks.

Right?



Now, imagine you are a 6’5”, 275-lb. all-conference defensive lineman.

You are about to graduate from college in about three weeks.

You didn’t play beer pong as much, but you registered 29 ½ sacks in three years, most during your junior and senior years. You’re known for being the anchor for the top pass-rush in the conference, absolutely dominating opposing right tackles with a variety of stutter-steps and swim moves. You single-handedly destroyed State in November with four sacks, a tipped pass, and a fumble recovery that you ran back for a score.

You’ve had NFL scouts checking out your games since last year’s performance at the conference title game. A few marveled at your speed while others had been curious about what you could do with a few extra pounds.

As said, you were the anchor to the line, but there were a couple of potential Day 1 draft picks in that defense. Mock drafts from the media have the middle linebacker going in the late first round, the strong safety going off the board early and your opposite side defensive end going in the second or third round – that is if the character issues are brushed aside.

One league personnel man said that you looked great… in a down year for the conference. Between the twelve teams, twenty of the sixty possible draft-eligible players were selected last year. You could almost double that if you include the prior college football season. Because of scheduling, your team didn’t play Tech last year, which meant that you didn’t line up against the widely-regarded best offensive tackle in the nation at the time. Seven of the players drafted in 2007 have made some sort of impact for their teams, with two vying for Rookie of the Year awards. Though your team won its bowl game by 14, the conference champs were embarrassed in the Sugar Bowl and the other 4 schools lost by a combined 73.

With this doubt cast over you, you are looking around and wonder whose names would be called. Those mock drafts were almost 100% right about your teammates; San Francisco grabbed the linebacker at 29, the safety ‘slipped’ to Chicago at 12 and surprisingly, your line-mate will be headed to Oakland instead of New York because of a draft-day trade that gave the Raiders an extra third-round pick.

The mock drafts were full of… you - number 93 in college, number 206 at the Combine – were poked and prodded in Indianapolis. You – all-time school leader in sacks and tackles behind the line of scrimmage – were scrutinized heavily because of the lack of ideal bulk, despite adding ten pounds last spring. You – First-Team All-Conference – subjected to the insulting whims of some radio jerk in Pensacola because a couple of your opponents had first-year starters that weren’t exactly up to snuff yet in the NCAA. You – Preseason All-American – were laughed at from sea to shining sea about some damn Wonderlic score.

Certainly, your play from Pop Warner to college has done the talking. You stayed out of trouble and at least kept a passing interest in academics. You weren’t supposed to have started in your sophomore year, but when injuries happened, you stepped in and grew into the starting left defensive end for two years. You didn’t let outer circumstances disrupt your path to success. You made the most of the opportunity. You know that you can make an impact in the NFL.

Right?

How the hell did they know about the Wonderlic, anyway?