Even if you're bad at it, you can still be good

It is obvious to most people that skill and discretion are not prerequisite for using social media. From college athletes tattling on their own inappropriate actions to the adult equivalent of schoolyard name calling, social media users are quite adept at putting their cyber feet in their cyber voice hole. Just recently NBA rookie Joel Embiid made quite a gaff when attempting to smooth talk none other than Kim Kardashian. It wasn't until one of his followers alerted him to the fact that Kim is actually Mrs. Kanye West that Embiid realized his mistake.

Oh I didn't know you were married sorry @KimKardashian just saw it from the fan's tweet... have a nice day
— Joel-Hans Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) July 16, 2014

The platform available for athletes to connect with their fans is more like a balance beam. It takes skill and restraint to use facebook, twitter, and even blogs to engage with fans and followers without looking like a doofus.

Unless your name happens to be Johnny Football. Mr. Manziel seems to be impervious to the effect social media abuse or over exposure has on most professional athletes other than being annoyed by the negative attention. He attends training camp during the week and then hops a plane to Las Vegas for a weekend of debauchery. He takes selfies with scantily clad party goers, flaunts his wealth, and displays his drunken revelry for all to see. All without the slightest care about who will see it or what they might say. I have no problem with this. Live la vida loca. If you are in your fifteen minutes of fame you'd better make the most of them. The thing that confuses me is that he hasn't played a down of professional football or even earned the starting spot on his team. He is likely the second most covered professional athlete on ESPN, all for his antics and yet we don't know if he can even play football at the professional level.

It would seem that all this attention and hype will amount to nothing if Manziel's football skill turns out to be similar to Tim Tebow's. Everybody loved Tebow untill they discovered that his abilities as a college quarterback didn't match his skill as an NFL quarterback. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Manziel might be the reincarnation of John Elway or Dan Marino. He may be this decade's Ryan Leaf. Despite his unproven gridiron abilities he's nailed the social media thing because we are all talking about him for it.