It would seem that all it takes to destabilise an athlete’s career is a mere 140 characters, with the number of Twitter-related scandals from our sports stars skyrocketing in the last couple of years.
Following Wallabies great David Campese's sexist comments regarding female journalists covering rugby union, we look at 10 Twitter scandals in the sporting world.
Campese posted "Why does the SMH get a girl to write about rugby. Growden who was a great jornio (sic) and now we have someone who has no idea about the game...!" causing uproar in Australia and abroad with Wallabies captain David Pocock tweeting his disappointment.
Campese then tweeted "Sometimes it is good to see some people react to thing you say. Please relax and see the light side of life. All press are the same.”
Can you think of others? Tell us what we missed and join the debate by leaving a comment below!
1 ... Only last month Quade Cooper enhanced his bad-boy tag by tweeting "I love rugby but there's s--t going on behind and above the players the effects the whole organisation! Happens at the reds few years back”, before swiftly removing the post.
2 ... Stephanie Rice, the Olympic gold medalist and ex-girlfriend of Cooper, also caused controversy when she celebrated a Wallabies win by posting “suck on that faggots”.
3 ... Phillip Hughes announced his axing from the Australia Test cricket team by posting "Disappointed not to be on the field with the lads today. Will be supporting the guys, it's a BIG test match 4 us. Thanks 4 all the support." Unfortunately for Hughes, this tweet was posted before the official announcement was made by Australian selectors.
4 ... Similarly, Kevin Pietersen tweeted "Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too.. Its [sic] a f*** up!! Surrey have signed me for l...", angering both his teammates and selectors.
5 ... The Barclays Premier League is one of the more notable areas for scandalous tweets, with ex-Liverpool star Ryan Babel taking out his anger after being dropped through his Twitter account, posting "What happened after a first good season? Scoring 10 goals, being young talent of the year, and then second and this season don't play at all?". As if this wasn’t enough, Babel quickly followed it up with a second tweet, stating "Where did it go wrong??? You have people who support me and don't support me ". Obviously surprised that his tweets had not resulted in his immediate re-selection, Babel concluded with a third, writing ”And one day, you will see what I'm capable off, will it be at LFC or somewhere else ... I have faith."
6 ... Rio Ferdinand discovered the dangers of the retweet, retweeting a comment made by a fellow member of the site, describing Ashley Cole as “choc ice.”
7 ... Brownlow Medallist and AFL superstar Dane Swan decided that Twitter was the perfect forum to respond to anti-doping measures in the AFL, tweeting "Stop sending out drug testers at 6am. It's starting to Piss me off. What's wrong with the afternoon? You can't catch me anyway. Too clever".
8 ... Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton tried to make light of the on-track rivalry between himself and Jenson Button, tweeting "Just noticed @jensonbutton unfollowed, that's a shame...I thought we respected one another but clearly he doesn't.” He then tweeted: "My bad, just found out Jenson never followed me. Don't blame him!"
9 ... For some sports people, it is not even their own Twitter accounts that land them in trouble, with rugby league's Joel Monaghan sacked from the Canberra Raiders over a picture of the centre interacting indecently with a dog, posted after Mad Monday celebrations in 2010.
10 ... Disgraced cycling icon Lance Armstrong provocatively posed with his seven framed Tour de France yellow jerseys in the midst of the doping scandal, with the accompanying caption of “Back in Austin and just layin' around” infuriating the 100,000 people who saw the picture in the three hours after its release.
