I’ve become a Twitter fan.  And recently I’ve started following some professional athletes because let’s face it, it’s more fun reading about who the Mariners are going to trade than tweeting about fractional real estate all day long.  So as I read through various tweets - namely Matt Hasselbeck and various other members of my beloved Seattle Seahawks - I can’t help but notice that these machines that perform every Sunday are actually real live people.

As I read these tweets I am learning more about these athletes and what they do from day to day.  For example, last Sunday Hasselbeck was in the middle of a water balloon fight, I will assume it was with his kids and that he’s not risking another back injury trying to beam third rounder Deon Butler.  If there were no Twitter I would have thought he was simply plugged in to an outlet at Microsoft headquarters waiting for a software upgrade.  But now I realize that he’s a human being and does normal stuff.  He’s kind of like me, similar age, has kids, you get the picture.

Now I find myself really dreading the first Seahawks loss of 2009 (if they actually lose that is… we can all dream).  Not only am I going to feel totally annoyed and depressed because my favorite team lost - as I did 12 times last year (ehhem) - I will feel even worse for the players that I follow on Twitter; unless of course one of them tweets “Tough loss, going to Sushi!”

Also, the press conferences after the game will really be a let down from now on.  Twitter will confirm for me that 99% of what athletes will say will be complete B.S., because after the press conference I’ll be able to read what they really have to say on Twitter.  The frustration will lie in the acknowledgment that these real life humans will decide on their own to give robot responses like, “We just need to take it one game at a time.”

I’m looking forward to reading something real on Twitter this season.  Instead of the robotic “We just didn’t execute for a full four quarters” response, I want to read Hasselbeck tweeting, “Housch made the Pack’s secondary look like a glacier” or Walter Jones complaining about how “some joker poked me in the ear hole today!”

Twitter is doing for professional sports what Fantasy has done; it is leading fans to care not only about the team, but the individuals on it.  That’s powerful stuff, if I’m Bud Selig, Roger Goodell, David Stern or Gary Bettman, I’m a Twitterbacker.

Now for me, the fan, I’m heading to buy a Costco-sized supply of Pepto.

Eric Pierce - A Seahawk, Mariner, and former Sonic fan now residing in Boise, ID