Baltimore Ravens WR Steve Smith is never at a loss for words and has provided us with many entertaining sound bites during the course of his 14-year career in the NFL. After torching his former team for 139 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-10 victory a few weeks ago, he told the Panthers to “mow his lawn” and said he ran around defenders “like they were schoolyard kids.”
And that’s why Smith is the perfect candidate for Twitter. Even though he first joined and made an account for an odd reason.
He joined the social media network in November of last year after someone was impersonating him and sending inappropriate messages to users. Smith signed up to put an end to that malarkey and take control of the situation.
But his reign on the social media network will be short-lived, it seems. He announced that he’s quitting Twitter on Thursday, and explained why (via the team’s official website).
“I’ll kill you on Twitter, so I had to stop,” he said. “Somebody will say something inappropriate to me, and my wife said I wasn’t being a very good example for my kids.”
He then shared his thoughts about the drawbacks that come along with interacting with fans on Twitter.
“People are going to say what they want on Twitter. Internet courage is great,” Smith said. “Internet courage is like a cover-2 corner. You got a safety over the top and you feel better about yourself. You got that one-on-one coverage, you back off a little bit. That’s how I look at Twitter.”
“I just think at the end of the day, what’s on my Twitter feed and what’s going on in the world, I don’t think they should be on the same level.”
So what did Smith’s Twitter swan song look like? Surprisingly, it was anticlimactic, as his last tweet was sent to Rams QB Austin Davis a few days back during this week’s Monday Night Football matchup between the 49ers and Rams.
I c u @ADavis1025 #waytoplay
— Steve Smith (@SteveSmithWR) October 14, 2014
Smith said he’ll use Twitter as a “marketing tool” in the future. He has an account for the Steve Smith Family Foundation—@SteveSmithFDN—so it’s possible that he’ll use that particular handle.
Whether he tweets from that account or his current one for marketing-centric updates, it just won’t be the same without him putting trolls on blast.
