The NFL was serious about the "no in-game Tweeting" thing, Chad

Yahoo! Sports

Tue Aug 24 02:33pm EDT

The NFL was serious about the "no in-game Tweeting" thing, Chad

Roger Goodell made it clear to Chad Ochocinco (notes) and everyone else that the league didn't want players using Twitter during NFL games. Chad said he was going to do it anyway.

He kept his word. So did the NFL. Tuesday, it touched him up with a $25,000 fine.

The Ocho fired off two Tweets during a preseason game against the Eagles on Friday night (actually, one Tweet came before the game, but the policy goes into effect 90 minutes prior to kickoff), and the NFL shot back the fine.

Two Tweets, that's 280 characters. At $25,000, that comes out to about $89.29 per character. And what were the pearls of wisdom that merited this exorbitant price tag?

Here's the first:

Just talk with Kelly Washington , Desean Jackson (notes), Geoff Pope, Hank Baskett (notes) and I caught a ball from Mike Vick, I love prw-game warm up

And the second:

Man Im sick of getting hit like that , its the damn preseason s***! 1day I'm gone jump up and start throwing hay makers , #Tylenolplease

The fine actually might have been less for getting up and throwing those haymakers. And I think we could all agree that that would have been more entertaining.

I wish the NFL would be a little more lax about letting players communicate with fans. Chad's not hurting anything here. I defy anyone to find anything malicious or hurtful to the league or its image in either of those Tweets.

Still, the rule exists, and he knew it. Twenty-five grand seems like a lot to pay for pointless rebellion. If he's going to lose that kind of money, I'd much rather it be for some kind of awesome touchdown celebration. That's money well spent.