Sep
25
It all started with a tweet.
A hometown crowd booed the Redskins last Sunday during a narrow 9-7 win against the woeful St. Louis Rams. Many players responded to the booing after the game, some more calmly then others, but none so adamantly as backup linebacker Robert Henson. He let his frustration out through Twitter: “All you fake half hearted Skins fan can… I won’t go there but I dislike you very strongly, don’t come to Fed Ex to boo dim wits!!” But now Henson’s wishing he could take those 129 characters back.
While the booing itself would have been news in its own right and certainly echoed loudly through the blogosphere, the player responses would simply have been another part of the story had someone not caught Henson’s agitated tweet. Fans responded, he whipped back winning replies. Within hours, the conversation appeared on fan Twitters, blogs, and postgame shows. Henson had went from anonymous benchwarmer to a vilified pseudo-celebrity. The linebacker’s Twitter account is now defunct, taken down reportedly of his own accord. But the multimedia firestorm his off-the-cuff comment spurred will not soon be forgotten.
Multimedia journalism feeds off frenzy such as this. The story became easily one of the biggest of the week, circulating not only around Washington but nationally. But there is a proper way to handle a story such as this one. And I think the coverage got out of hand.
I’m not talking about those twits out there who initially responded to Henson or even those fans who posted the story on their personal blogs. I applaud The Washington Post for its extensive yet fair treatment of the ordeal, and Dan Steinberg, who proved in his front page article and multiple D.C. Sports Bog posts (like this one) that bloggers can be excellent journalists. I also applaud Redskins.com for addressing the issue rather than ignoring it (cough, ticket controversy, cough, crying grandmother, cough.)
But the continual regurgitation, which can be so funny when it’s about Chris Cooley’s shorts, can seem downright mean with an issue such as this. Yes, Henson made a mistake, and yes, he deserved the negative publicity. But does he deserve this nationally televised rant from ESPN personality Mike Greenberg? Does he deserve his new status as villain in the eyes of fans? I think not. We all live our lives constantly plugged into technology. (How many times have you checked your Facebook today?) If you’re like me, you hardly give a thought to what you post. Henson needed to vent, but he did it to an audience of hundreds of fans and media members. It’s so easy to forget that just by pressing a few buttons your opinions become part of the public forum.
So take a look at the Hogs Haven fan blog’s June interview with Henson, as well as Henson’s heartfelt and composed apology, and recognize that there is a normal guy behind the “dim wit” tweets who deserves a little respect.
