There are no circumstances where it is good to tell off a fan, especially when you use a professional sports franchise Twitter account to do so. But, that’s what happened earlier Tuesday afternoon when the Kansas City Chiefs’ @kcchiefs account direct messaged a response to @teedubya with:
“Would help if you had your facts straight. Your choice to be a fan. cc get a clue”
Oy. Oy, Oy, Oy, Oy, Oy, when you realize @teedubya, Travis Wright, is a social media guru with 123,520 followers (at last count).
According to a Reddit post by Wright, he first tweeted on Monday night that, “I tweeted that for the 4th year in a row, the Chiefs are at the bottom of salary cap spending and that the owner, Clark Hunt, is hoarding cap dollars. The Chiefs commitment to mediocrity has made me not care much about being a fan.”
He then said the Chiefs responded with the direct message.
Later, @kcchiefs issued an apology, which, funny enough, Wright couldn’t read because they had been blocked.
According to the Chiefs staff page, Lance Brown is the Manager of Internet and Social Media, and those familiar with the team’s administrative structure said it “would have to be” Brown who would’ve posted the comments. Either way, the first-person singular response is somewhat telling in that it either appears the person has been singled out and been made to take some level of responsibility for the tweet, or they were hoping to head off any potential heavy inside penalty from their employer.
It isn’t known what, if any, other action will be taken by the Chiefs moving forward. The team is coming off a rough NFL opening weekend where the Atlanta Falcons blew out the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, 40-24. It appears frustrations exist on both sides.
A more detailed story can be found here.
This is just selective. You should see what this “social media guru” said to the Chiefs twitter. Hardly professional and it’s just two people acting like children. He shouldn’t be celebrated for doing the exact same thing.
Hey Tyler. I did see his original post. I guess I just didn’t think it was that bad. Here it is (for anyone who didn’t see it):
“I’m not much of a @kcchiefs fan anymore. Clark Hunt’s yearly 30m under the cap bullshit is unethical. Greedy bastard owners can F.O. cc @nfl”
Really? That’s what got him blocked? A fan rant in passive aggressive voice? A newly born kitten is meaner than that. Trust me. I chalked it up to a wrong time on a bad day response from @kcchiefs. 99% of the time, this kind of message isn’t even read, let alone acknowledged, let alone acknowledged with a terrible response.