As this year's National Football League (USA) draft kicked off Thursday night, Univ. of Mississippi offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil was projected to be a top pick; he was said to be coveted by several teams drafting early in the first round, including the San Diego Chargers at #3 and the Baltimore Ravens at #6. Soon after the draft began, however, a video clip was posted on Tunsil's Twitter account, showing Tunsil doing bong hits while wearing a gas mask (Tunsil later acknowledged being in the video, but says it happened two years ago). Shortly thereafter, Tunsil's Instagram account was hacked, with an upload of an email in which Tunsil asks a university official for money to help with his mother's bills (one might sympathize with Tunsil on this, but it would be an NCAA violation if the request were granted).
Tunsil was eventually picked at #13 by the Miami Dolphins; this chart shows what the incident might have cost him. The SI article linked above, written by a legal analyst, suggests that he likely has grounds to sue, if the perpetrator can be identified.
College kids do some stupid things, and the guys on the football team probably get into more than their share of campus scrapes and brushes with the law. NFL general managers, coaches, and scouts who draft players (mostly from American college football teams) spend considerable time vetting candidates, not just for their abilities the field, but for intelligence, personalities, behavioral traits, and potential character issues. Football talent is much more important to these gentlemen than good citizenship, but character "red flags" can push a candidate down on, or even off, a team's draft board (a priority queue of candidates that gets pruned as other teams make their selections in a multiple-round, round-robin fashion).
Twenty-one years ago, the stock of a top defensive lineman named Warren Sapp went into freefall right before the draft over rumors of heavy cocaine and marijuana use. Sapp fell from projected #2 overall to #12, where he was picked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sapp went on to have a Hall of Fame career with Tampa Bay, where he played 13 seasons and was selected to the Pro Bowl 7 times.
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Hackers took over the National Football League's (USA) twitter account for about nine minutes on Tuesday, posting a tweet falsely announcing Commissioner Roger Goodell's death at age 57. The Twitter community seemed to take the development in stride, quickly running up the retweet count into the thousands before the original was deleted. But the hackers managed to post a couple snarky follow-ups before exiting.
The TechInsider piece reports receiving email from the hacker group Peggle Crew afterwards claiming responsibility (credit?) for the hack; the hacker revealed the 'lame' password used to protect the NFL account (see TFA).
As previously reported, the Twitter account of Laremy Tunsil was hacked several weeks ago, on the night of the NFL draft, with disastrous consequences for the highly touted college prospect. That hack was probably done by someone who knew Tunsil personally, though.
Also in the news of late is that Mark Zuckerberg of facebook fame recently had his twitter and pinterest accounts hacked. Thoughts are that he had reused his password on several accounts, one of which was revealed in a data dump of LinkedIn data. To borrow and slightly amend a lyric from The Police: "De do do do de dadada is all I want to say to you."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Saturday April 30 2016, @04:17PM
Doing stupid shit, or shit you're not supposed to do, could cost you your career or hurt your chances.
Got it.
Was that news?
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:03PM
*tscchh* don't let them in on the secret that doing stupid things can hurt you :p
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:52PM
I found Sherlock! Figures he'd hang out on SN
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Saturday April 30 2016, @10:47PM
So how long before society catches up with technology and people realise that these minor reported-via-social-media transgressions should be forgiveable because, hey, we all do stupid shit when we're young? I give it another 10 years. About the same time that people stop caring about leaked nude images / sex videos .
And then how much longer before the pendulum swings too far and and all transgressions, not matter how heinous, are forgiveable because hey, nobody's perfect. That's about the point where people stop bothering to get dressed before going out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @04:26PM
Biggest losers ever. Don't let the door slam when you leave San Diego. Here, let me hold the door open for you since you're too lame to open it yourself.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:12PM
San Diego SUPER CHARGERS!
Well, what do you expect? Most football players(including Laremy) are niggers, and niggers are troublesome.
Bet the dipshit picked on some skinny White wimp who knew how to hack. That'll teach him a lesson!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @11:57PM
This post needs an all-banjo soundtrack.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by devlux on Saturday April 30 2016, @04:33PM
This is just filling me up with tears. I mean this poor, poor multimillionaire.
He could have had even more money for chasing a fucking ball around a field while wearing tights than he is going to get now for chasing a ball around a field while wearing tights.
All because he ALLOWED HIMSELF to be photographed doing something stupid and assumed it would not have career consequences.
I'm honestly disgusted that we pay these guys so highly when they contribute so little to society.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 30 2016, @04:51PM
That is very much my attitude. Maybe professional sports could be "good" for our nation, but what we have today is just so much shit. As bad as professional sports already were, I think "reality TV" has infringed upon the sports, and made them worse.
Of course, I've never gotten excited over pro sports anyway. Little league, high school, anything my own family is playing in, yeah, that's cool. Pro sports? It all seems a waste to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:08PM
I stopped watching all pro sports during the baseball strike... around 1980? Fuck em. After that I only watched the Olympics, but even that has turned rotten with enhancement drugs and corruption.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Sunday May 01 2016, @11:58AM
(Sorry to ruin the rosy picture for you.) Cheating has been a problem at the Olympics since the very beginning [wikipedia.org]. Also apparently common in the ancient games, not that I know specifics.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Capt. Obvious on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:31PM
Would you be happier if we paid athletes less, and let the owners of the team keep more?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:38PM
Ya know - that MAY not be a bad idea. Of course, the cities that host the teams could then stop "investing" truckloads of money in sports complexes. The owners should build the damned stadiums, complexes, or whatever. As a taxpayer who lives not far from a proposed stadium, WTF would I want to PAY FOR a huge eyesore which will attract endless streams of traffic through my neighborhood? I'd rather bribe the owners to build the stadium fifty miles away from my home, thank you very much. Let them build it out in Farmer Brown's pasture, so that the cows can keep the turf trimmed between games.
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Saturday April 30 2016, @06:17PM
Doctor a geological report that the site ground can't withstand the load .. ? :)
Plant some really rare plants such that the area get protection?
Nice building project you got there.........
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2016, @01:45AM
That would not do shit. Sports players are paid what they are paid for one fuckin reason and one reason only: So they don't take bribes and throw games. There is no other fuckin reason. If I can win but you pay me shit, maybe I take few million from a shady fella to throw a championship since if I win I get 100K if I throw he pays me 2-3 Mil so he can fix all the bets. It's as simple as that. Same reason CEO's get paid ton of money for nothing. It's the only way to keep them honest (towards the company/shareholders). If we paid our politicians shit ton of money, maybe they wouldn't be fixing legislation for 10K donation.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 01 2016, @01:53AM
The thing is - those championships don't mean shit. Seriously, if I get constipated, and feel awful for a couple days, that means far much more than who won the fucking "Super Bowl". We spend our time worrying over pointless drivel - like reality shows and "professional" sports.
(Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Sunday May 01 2016, @10:13PM
Except, there seems to be no connection between "paying executives a lot of money?" and "executive honesty". I mean, I suppose it makes sense in theory, but tons od things do in theory.
(Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Sunday May 01 2016, @05:40AM
One has nothing to do with the other. The owners having more money doesn't mean they won't squeeze the city for money for a stadium. I mean, they don't plead poverty (in a way that stands up to audits), they threaten to leave).
And I agree about stadiums; my taxes went up to build a stadium that will be used about 8 times a year, and benefit a private company. I have no idea why that would be something I want. We even had companies I would want to keep leave the city over that bullshit.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by captain normal on Saturday April 30 2016, @06:44PM
"I'm honestly disgusted that we pay these guys so highly when they contribute so little to society."
I don't really care to be the one to point out to you that there are many people who feel the same way about people who write code.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by devlux on Saturday April 30 2016, @07:08PM
And yet you do it anyways. ;)
When you show me a programmer who makes the equivalent of millions of dollars a year for writing code you'll have a valid point, especially if you can find someone claiming they are disgusted by it. In fact I'll make you a deal. You find a programmer who makes millions of dollars a year for writing code and I'll be the person voicing disgust. Programming is a mix of science and art that to my mind borders on poetry or storytelling. Compensation should be valued accordingly but obviously it is not. Nevertheless a good programmer can make a decent living without nearly as much struggle as someone who's primary job function involves busting up concrete. I would argue that the person who builds roads should be compensated better than the guy who dons tights play with balls once or twice a week. Sports shouldn't be a job it's just a game.
In the meantime my comment is more of a gut reaction to the fact that those who contribute the least to society seem to be the ones who are benefiting the most from it, while those who do the most good are the least rewarded. Then to have people cry about it when those same people are "less rewarded" but still compensated way beyond the lifetime earnings of the 99th percentile.
It simply means we as a society place more value on ephemeral "entertainment", than we do on lasting contributions such as art, science, humanities, and the old go to gripes of food, shelter and education. Can you honestly tell me that bread and circuses feels like the right answer for improving the human condition?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 30 2016, @08:13PM
> when you show me a programmer who makes the equivalent of millions of dollars a year for writing code you'll have a valid point
https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies [cbinsights.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2016, @12:13AM
That's not at all anywhere close to what the parent was talking about.
You linked a story that compares startups valued over 1 billion, which is not proof of programmers being paid on par with professional athletes.
It just proves venture capitalists make investments in tech startups, no duh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2016, @02:25AM
Programmers started most of those unicorns. they are now worth more than any athlete on the face of the earth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01 2016, @05:17AM
Sorry, but not quite.
(Score: 2) by dltaylor on Saturday April 30 2016, @05:58PM
Personally, I'd like to go back to the time when a model release was required to publish (anywhere) someone's image, and that would happily mean shutting down many, if not all, of the social media sites. Unless we're going to have that, though, everyone is ALWAYS fair game (any smarm-phone at a private party automatically makes it a public event), and you live your life knowing that every action could have PR consequences.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bitstream on Saturday April 30 2016, @06:20PM
Guess why there's social gatherings with tight control of who get's in and not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2016, @03:09PM
I DR'd because on loading the SI page an ad starting blaring out of my speakers.... But I'm thinking the "legal analyst" from SI must be from the Philipines or somewhere else. In the United States, truth is a defense against defamation. That the truth costed Tunsil money is irrelevant.
Then again, yeah he could sue... and lose. Plus thusly continue to drag the situation the courts.