Hall Of Fame Game Opens Preseason Tonight
By Scott Allen
As the Arizona Cardinals have the day off from practice after record crowds for yesterday’s scrimmage at an estimated attendance of 10,000-12,000 people, the NFL gets ready to kick off it’s preseason tonight in Canton, Ohio with the Buffalo Bills facing the Tennessee Titans in the Hall of Fame Game.
As for the inductees, they include Buffalo Bills Owner Ralph Wilson Jr., former Bills players Bruce Smith and Thurman Thomas, former Dallas Cowboys receiver Bob Hayes, the late Kansas City Chief Derrick Thomas, and Phoenix’s own Randall McDaniel. Congrats to all!
As for the Cardinals, they take a day off after nine days of practice. Today’s biggest issue seems to be how the current Cardinals use Twitter, especially given the fact the the San Diego Chargers’ Antonio Cromartie was fined for complaining about the training camp food. The most widely known “tweeters” are Darnell Dockett and Larry Fitzgerald.
I think players do have the right to express themselves just like anyone else, however, they are in the public eye and do have a responsibility to be professional while tweeting. They need to have an understanding they represent the teams they play for and any negative comments they make will reflect not only on them but on their respective team as well.
Kent Somers from The Arizona Republic said the Cardinals have had no problems with players tweets so far but it’s an issue they are monitoring along with the NFL.
I follow both Dockett and Fitzgerald. A couple of weeks ago Dockett got into a back and forth with the Phoenix Business Journal’s Adam Kress on Twitter. Kress mentioned how Dockett should be careful what he says because of who he works for. He posed the question of how does his employer feel about his tweets. Dockett responded by saying only God judges him and no one else can. He promply blocked Kress from responding to him directly. Even so, it was entertaining to watch it play out.
The Cardinals have two days of practices and a walk-thru early Wednesday morning before departing for Thursday night’s game in Pittsburgh against the Steelers on ESPN.
Scott Allen
AZScott