Social Media "Hack"

On April 29, 2016 CBS Sports released a story on Ole Miss offensive lineman, Laremy Tunsil. Tunsil was expected to be a top 10 selection in the NFL Draft. He was known as one of the best offensive linemen. His talent was so great that many mock drafts had him going first overall. Until minutes before the draft, a video was posted to his personal verified Twitter account that was of him wearing a gas mask smoking what looks to be marijuana.Who leaked this photo? The real answer is still unknown. Tunsil claims his social media had been "hacked". He claimed the incident happened several years ago and that he had made a mistake. There are reporters that think it was Tunsil's step-dad because of the previous problem they had earlier that year. Hacked or not, the point is Tunsil WAS wearing the gas mask, and he WAS getting high. Athletes don't realize that their actions, no matter how recent they are, are always on display to the public at all times. Because of this incident, it scared away teams that were previously interested in him and Tunsil dropped all the way to the No. 13 pick. The Dolphins finally selected him, costing him millions of dollars in potential earnings. Although he lost out on millions of dollars, Tunsil was grateful for the Dolphins
and the opportunity he was given to play for them. 
Now what does this show about the affects social media have on sports? A lot. This incident literally happened minutes before the draft was supposed to start, and it went viral. So viral that the host of the draft even asked Tunsil about it in front of everyone right after he was picked to play for the Dolphins. Did this incident stop the decisions of the other teams? Yes, absolutely it did. They never verified the facts because it had happened so fast. At the time of the incident, there was no further investigation to change their minds about Tunsil, it immediately affected the draft order. Because of this, I do not believe that sportswriters are not going to be diligent in verifying the facts before negative framing of an athlete is depicted. Tunsil had to try to convince everyone that he really was hacked because why would he post that right before the draft, one of the most life changing moments of his life. 

Why are stories like this so popular? Well because of supply and demand of course. If football wasn't such a popular sport, the athletes wouldn't hold such a public standing. Supply and demand is very real when it comes to athletes on sports teams. Fans are interested in the athletes and their behaviors and that is why there is even a market for stories like Tunsil. Athletes are public figures and everything about them is interesting to anyone that follows or cares about sports at all. In Tunsil's situation, if he is going to be smoking

marijuana, so be it, but make sure that no one is ever filming it, snap chatting it, or tweeting about what is going on. Athletes need to learn to keep certain activities private and only use social media for good. Those bad behaviors can get leaked all over the internet for all eyes to see, especially people you may not want to see it and they will have to live with the consequences for the rest of their lives, because once something is on the internet, it is always on the internet.