Smacked down

It’s the little things in life that amuse me. I’m on Twitter and generally tweet about sports issues. I try to be a good Twit citizen and re-tweet when possible. For those of you who are not hep to the lingo, that’s when you re-post a comment someone else made. You do this because the comment was good, included a good link, and the person might re-tweet you some day.

Paul Kuharsky is the AFC South blogger for ESPN. His posts are more “just the facts, ma’am” which makes him almost a throwback in today’s sarcasm-soaked world. I follow him on Twitter. I may have retweeted him before. This morning, I did it again.

He posted an article about “predicted” compensatory picks for AFC South teams. The Titans were the big winners, with a theoretical third-rounder for Albert Haynesworth and funny-money seventh-rounders for Eric King, Chris Carr, and Daniel Loper. Note the former Titan gravy train heading to Detroit.

My re-tweet simply read “Titans get four compensatory draft picks (3,7,7,7)” along with his tweet, which stated “Compensatory pick predictions”. I thought that was that.

I got a message a few minutes later. “Dude, are predicted to get. That’s not an NFL announcement. How about some context?” I was taken aback. First it was a guy from a major sports site chatting with me. Second, did I really make a major blunder? Deciding not to be my usual smart-aleck self, I covered my bases with “If Paul Kuharsky thinks I should clarify, I should clarify. Those are predicted compensation picks for the Titans.”

And because I can’t help myself, I replied to him stating “Since I flubbed up a tweet, does that mean ESPN has suspended me for a week?” I thought I’d reference Tony Kornheiser’s recent suspension, in which he probably kept getting paid and watched a lot of The Wire.

I thought that covered it, but to complete the circle nicely, Kuharsky wrote “first time offender, free pass with a warning…”

I’m not saying that it was the greatest dialog, but I enjoyed myself. In the end I realized that my original retweet included his word “predictions”. But I’ve learned recently from How to Win Friends and Influence People that you neither win friends nor influence people by starting an argument.