img_0012Chad Ocho Cinco is one of the more prolific athlete Twitterers around, ripping off over 5,000 tweets in a few months and generally running his mouth as he’s keen to do.

Last night, he bit off more than he could chew in the form of ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth.

It all started with this tweet from Ocho Cinco, which prompted this response from Schlereth. From there, things got personal. (Click to enlarge these.)

And then there was this closer. If you’re not fluent in Twitterese, a transcript, jammed with cliches, edited for clarity, and clumped into paragraphs because the chronology is not important for reasons I’ll explain later:

Schlereth:

Way to stand firm for your boy, oh wait, never mind! Dude, that was funny, you have to admit. Show me the Chad that loves the game more than the fame and I will be effusive in my praise for your skill and effort. Chad, I hope you’re correct. I hope you win. You are correct, I don’t know you and you don’t know me yet you call me a hater. Understand I don’t dislike you; I do, however, dislike some of your actions. This game is the ultimate team game. It takes unity to win championships, something I do know about. If you’re willing to humble yourself for your team you will be exalted. In theory, it sounds easy; in practice, it’s extremely hard. 53 that care more about each other than themselves can’t lose. Nothing would be better for me to see you grasp that concept and lead your team to greatness. I would be the captain of your bandwagon! I would lead the charge! The question is, are you willing to make that kind of sacrifice? Have you ever loved the game and the men you play with so much that you’re willing to check yourself out of the hospital the morning after surgery and drive yourself to the stadium and line up with your team? See, I have, and that’s what gives me authority to call out anyone who is putting themself above the team! I wish you health, happiness, and success! (In regards to) “You love the game more than I ever have or will”: There is no way to measure that, so let’s stop with that. I want you to have fun! We both know that this game is hard and it’s really hard when you lose. I’ll leave you with this, something my dad always said to me: “There is no right way to do something wrong!” With that I will say good night and wish you well. Regardless of what happens, I’m gonna call like I see it. That’s my job.

Ocho Cinco:

Mark, where you been? Stop killing me on TV or I’ll be going to jail for assault, oh wait, never mind, child please! You ain’t gonna find out behind that desk; you don’t know me, you only know what you see on TV just like everyone else. Fame? Fame comes when you’re winning games. Last time I checked, we weren’t too damn good. But, you don’t even care about me or my team so why even waste my time on here? I will not fail or lose this year! Straight up. When you comment about things that are untrue it’s considered hating without really knowing that individual. I am back now; because of my style of play that means I put myself above the team, because of my personality, being outspoken, I love this game more than you ever will or have. I struggled to get to this point. Now you and your co-host got all the sense because I don’t play or do the things the way you want me to. You understand this game and know what it takes to win a ring! That’s what my fuss was about last year: In order to win a championship, you have to build a winning team. We can compete now again and I am back to being that old fun Chad. I didn’t care about being the best, I want to have fun fun fun and celebrate! I’ll leave you with this: My dad wasn’t there, so my grandma always said, “Baby, just do your best and have fun.” Goodnight!

Ocho Cinco later explained: “I respect him but he’s old and doesn’t think the way I do.” The reference to a co-host refers to another ESPNer caught in the crossfire, Trey Wingo, who got his response promptly.

Now, instead of imagining this as a back-and-forth conversation, read these as argument and rebuttal, as if this were a day on NFL Live followed by an interview of Ocho Cinco on PTI. Can you see that there’s perhaps a future for Twitter in this realm of analyst-athlete interaction?

For Ocho Cinco, this is barely a controversy and no more than a blip: In the last 14 hours, he’s also UStreamed a conversation about interracial dating that ESPN’s Jemele Hill picked up on, and tweeted a picture of the Bengals’ urine samples. He’s been on the cutting edge of cutting out (or engaging) the media for a minute or two.

But Schlereth is one of the first media members to take calling out from agate or the analysts’ desk and apply it to Twitter. And if he or other ESPNers who are supposed to be objective, at least in that, spend their off-air hours continuing to make themselves part of the story, they further blur the line between ESPN as journalistic entity and press wing for the athletes and leagues they cover. Opinion, of course, is fine, but opinion expressed to incite (and I think Schlereth qualifies here) is dangerously close to creating controversy for its own sake.

As a fan and blogger who enjoys and can use the drama, this is great, I guess.

But as one of the seven people in America who still thinks journalism should have rules and ESPN shouldn’t be exempt, this is troubling.

For the commenters, Schlereth outtakes from Guiding Light: