Miller Time: What's so trashy about 140 characters?

Tweet from Iowa State's Pat Downey posted on Jan. 30.

Some say talk is cheap, but at the end of the day, talk gets our attention regardless of what action does or does not follow it—especially on social media.


Several college wrestlers have taken to Twitter recently to let a few things out. Some tweets are competitive, while some start out as observations. Much of it end ups in controversy, and personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it in the wrestling world.


Two weeks ago, a simple tweet from Isaiah Martinez regarding Mark Hall’s debut varsity match for Penn State sparked an entertaining exchange of tweets between the two-time NCAA champ and PSU’s Luke Gardner.


This week, Iowa State’s Pat Downey called out two-time NCAA champion Gabe Dean of Cornell, saying he was coming to take the defending champ’s crown.


All in all, it gave wrestling fans—some of the most intense fans in all of sports—something to talk about. It added a little zest to all the wrestling talk.


Flowrestling jumped right on Downey’s Twitter rant, posting a story on it, knowing fans would be interested. They were correct.


I’m not saying all wrestlers need to log on and start bashing each other, but maybe it’s OK to let a little competitiveness show in social media posts. After all, social media is one of the major communications tools that we have.


That being said, I think wrestling fans should enjoy the show. I’ve noticed a lot of people are quick to attack an athlete’s character when he or she speaks out on social media.


We expect to see competitiveness on the mat, so why should we be bothered when we see someone who makes a living in the sport show their competitive nature in other areas of their lives.


As fans, it’s more than OK to join in with the athlete’s competitiveness, but let’s not get too sensitive about it.


If an athlete tweets that he plans to knock off a two-time NCAA champ who has had a phenomenal season so far, that’s his responsibility to back it up.


Let’s just watch how it plays out. This is making the sport fun.


Remember when Tony Ramos signaled that he broke Nahshon Garrett at the 2016 Olympic Team Trials?


Carver-Hawkeye Arena went nuts with fans who fed off the raw emotion of Ramos’ victory. That was fun.


That was also physical equivalent of a competitive tweet.


So to the wrestlers who have something to say, bring it on.


And to the fans out there scrolling through their timelines, join the hype and retweet it.