Johnson, a wide receiver and no stranger to tweeting, went from a pitied soul to, many will say, a pathetic one after tweeting about his dropping a potentially game-winning touchdown pass in overtime Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Addressing the media after the game, Johnson all but admirably took responsibility for letting his team down. But when he had more time to think about it, well, he reacted by apparently blaming God for his mishap.
"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!!" the 24-year-old tweeted from his iPad at around 5:15 Sunday, about an hour after Steelers' 19-16 victory, according to the New York Daily News. "AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO ..."
Like I said, athletes sharing their thoughts in 140 characters or less is not new. Jon Parks founded the website Athletes Who Tweet in April 2009 because he was amused by the interest and controversy Twitter was causing in professional sports. So the die-hard sports fan developed his site to allow sports fans to find their favorite athlete on Twitter. There's also the website Tweeting-Athletes.com, a directory created, it says so itself, because "it wasn't easy to find professional athletes on Twitter, other than the real obvious (Shaq, Lance, Tony, etc.)."
Used effectively, athletes can use tweets to weigh in on matters in short-and-sweet fashion and have it reported instantly worldwide. Shaq did so, for example, when he congratulated Kobe Bryant after the Los Angeles Lakers won another NBA championship in June. But Johnson's case is Exhibit A of how to heap infamy upon infamy. Not only will he long be remembered for dropping that pass, but now he will be a laughingstock for blaming God on Twitter.
Paraphrasing Johnson himself, FOLKS WILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!!