ABSTRACT
Social media has afforded the National Football League (NFL)—already the nation’s preeminent professional sports league—the ability to increase its popularity by allowing fans to engage with the league, its teams, and its players. Though social media has in many ways been a boon for the NFL, it also has proven to be a bane. Unfortunately, the concerns about the professional faux pas have overshadowed discussion of how NFL players’ social media usage can be empowering and transformative. Nonetheless, as this chapter asserts, social media—in particular, Twitter—has provided these players a means through which to actually engage in what can be deemed as “contentious conversation.” To support this assertion, the chapter closely examines Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman’s social media usage in the aftermath of fiery comments made after the 2014 National Football Conference Championship in which questions arose and negative comments were made about his character and intelligence. Sherman’s social media use exemplifies the potential agency social media affords players.
