Thanks to the antics of Chad Ochocinco, most professional sports leagues have prohibited players from tweeting during games. However, the Philadelphia Wings made history yesterday as Twitter made its way on the playing field for some lacrosse action at the Wells Fargo Center.
Well, sort of.
Gone were the familiar last names on the back of the team’s jerseys; instead, they were replaced with Twitter handles like @bigdaws02 (Paul Dawson), @maxseibald42 (Max Seibald) and @DanDawson6 (Dan Dawson).
The Wings sported teal and white jerseys with their customary logo on the front. After the game, the team auctioned off the game jerseys, with all proceeds donated to the American Cancer Society.
“It’s tremendous. We did some specialty jerseys a couple weeks ago and we had a win,” said forward Drew Westervelt (@Dwesty1426). “It’s good to be a part of giving back. I think what the organization is doing is a good thing, and it’s exciting for us to wear something different. I think it’s exciting for the fan base, and it’s pretty impressive to see people are bidding a significant amount of money on them.”
Playing for a truly good cause, the Wings improved to 3-2 on the season by outlasting the Buffalo Bandits, 14-13. Westervelt broke a 12-12 tie with less than four minutes remaining, and added his third goal of the night less than two minutes later to seal the victory.
In addition to Westervelt’s heroics, Dan Dawson added nine assists, rookie Kevin Crowley had four goals and captain Brodie Merrill had three goals and two assists.
The players and the organization welcomed the idea of making American professional sports history by self-promoting themselves on the job.
“I think it was pretty cool,” head coach and general manager Johnny Mouradian said. “Tonight someone said in the locker room after the game maybe we should wear a different jersey every night. I think next week we’ll have everybody put Drew Westervelt on the back of their jersey to see if that works.”
