Cyber Jocks

Arkansas Athletes Learning To Be Careful Expressing Themselves Online

Last updated Sunday, June 15, 2008 4:01 PM CDT in Sports

By Ryan Malashock
THE MORNING NEWS

Sure, most of Arkansas' athletes explain they signed up for Facebook -- and nearly 60 percent of them are on the site -- merely to keep in touch with friends. It's an innocent expression of their day-to-day lives, they say.

No doubt, that rings true for many. But not for all. Anytime 18- to 22-year-olds are given unfiltered outlets to express themselves, potential disaster exists. After all, college students will be college students. Only now, there's a simplistic way to document the journey.

In many ways, Arkansas' athletic department finds itself in a fortunate position. Around the country, other schools have watched their athletes bare it all, literally, online or pose in party pictures with alcohol and drugs or even solicit class papers for pay. For the most part, Arkansas has avoided similar situations, but administrators know they're not immune.

Razorbacks athletes are educated, by sports information staffers, by administrators and by coaches, but still, risk is ever-present.

"I'm probably more aware than the average 48-year-old about (Facebook and MySpace) because of the young people I work with," Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long said. "It's here to stay. My overall philosophy is, you know what, it's part of our culture now. We have high expectations for our student-athletes on and off the field, and that carries over to MySpace or Facebook or any of those.

"The young people are responsible for what they put on their sites, and they'll be held accountable for that."

Facebook 101

Michael Sanchez didn't have a choice. Not in his mind. The redshirt freshman forward for the Arkansas basketball team had to create a Facebook profile, even as a junior in high school. AOL Instant Messenger, his previous form of online communication, had become obsolete to his friends.

So, he adopted Facebook -- which started as a college-only site in 2004 but quickly expanded -- as his online vehicle of choice.

"It's almost like you had to have it to stay connected with everyone," Sanchez said. "It's great to use to talk with people you can't see that much. I mean, even now, I'm not on there all the time. And the coaches, they always harp on it. Coach (John) Pelphrey is always talking about 'Don't be caught doing things in photos.' So it has positives and negatives."

Others have joined in just as easily and speedily as Sanchez did, making life more difficult for those Arkansas coaches charged with overseeing their athletes' online conduct. MySpace is the most popular of these sites, home to about 110 million registered users, but Facebook -- with its 60 million registered users -- is rapidly gaining ground.

Facebook also seems to be the most legitimate of the social networking sites, as users need a working e-mail to start a profile. It's a completely open network, however, home now to more than just students and flawed in the area of privacy.

Teachers and professors have profiles. Parents are signing up. Don't forget about prospective employers. And with snooping only a mouse-click away, the possibility of embarrassment should at least make those who partake in Facebook nervous.

For the most part, it hasn't. That's why Arkansas' women's athletic department has held an orientation concerning these sites before the last few school years began. The men's department has left policing up to its coaches, but when the departments merge this year, Long said education on these sites would intensify.

"Whenever I speak to the athletes, I talk in blunt terms," said Bill Smith, associate athletic director for communications for women's sports. "I tell them, 'You're giving away a tremendous amount of your privacy. You don't own any of that.' It can be eye-opening for them. They don't realize that the privacy functions of these services are flawed."

It's Out There

The rumors spread like a Santa Ana wind-fueled wildfire. Message boards ran rampant with speculation. Sports talk shows exploded with frantic discussion. Phone calls poured in to Arkansas' sports information office.

All because of one "status message" typed on the Facebook profile of an Arkansas basketball player on April 16.

Patrick is leaving.

Friends of Patrick Beverley, the Razorbacks' leading returning scorer, were waiting for a declaration of this kind. Six days earlier, they had seen an ominous post on his profile.

Patrick is thinking about making a tough decision.

Two days earlier, he offered up an ambiguous answer.

Patrick has made the decision and is praying that all will b well.

No one knew the honest meaning of Beverley's postings, though. Patrick is leaving could've dealt with any number of issues in his life.

Beverley hasn't spoken about the incident. But his mother has. And Lisa Beverley said her son had, in fact, decided he wanted to transfer to South Florida, where former Arkansas coach Stan Heath resides.

"Like everyone else, I was freaked out by seeing that stuff about Patrick on his Facebook," Sanchez said.

Pelphrey quickly heard about the posting and met with Beverley. The junior-to-be is in Fayetteville to stay. But the event validated just how fast news can spread on Facebook. It also should serve as a warning to those who have inappropriate material linked to their profiles or simply have material posted they don't want viewed publicly.

Arkansas' athletes, despite warnings of consequences, haven't completely rid their profiles of such substance.

Former basketball player Sonny Weems' "wall," which contains messages from friends, has been littered with profanities and the n-word the past year. Several football players are still members of a "group" called "(Expletive) all the People Who Have Something To Say about Robert Johnson," relating to the former quarterback-turned-wide receiver.

Baseball player Dallas Keuchel didn't consciously post any photos of himself drinking alcohol. But several pictures of Keuchel show up on his profile in the "photos added by others" section with him holding a beer. A photo on Weems' profile, taken in February 2007, shows him, Beverley and basketball player Michael Washington at a party. Weems smiles in the background, while Beverley and Washington sport bloodshot eyes as they each flash a thick wad of money.

These players may not have imagined they'd come under scrutiny for this content. But they should have expected the unexpected, said Montana Miller, a Facebook expert and professor at Bowling Green State University.

No matter what they believe or what they've been told, absolute privacy doesn't apply to Facebook.

"They could set their profiles to private, but even that's not a guarantee," Miller said. "If someone wants to see their profiles, they'll find a way to do it. With all that has gone on, these athletes really have no excuse to be ignorant about this."

That reality concerns the man in charge of Arkansas athletics, especially since an increasing number of recruits are seeking out the Facebook profiles of their possible future teammates.

"(I worry) about all the things people have read about," Long said. "Abuse of alcohol. Putting themselves in compromising positions. (Appearing) in photos and things like that. Expressing themselves in a public way with a teammate or with another student in a (negative) light and putting it out there for the world to see."

Finding A Job

Logan Forsythe comprehends that he won't play third base forever. The former Razorback, drafted and recently signed by the San Diego Padres, realizes he won't collect paychecks for playing the game he loves his entire life. One day, Forsythe will interview for jobs, and he knows those hiring him will be typing his name into a Facebook search.

So he has lived his life in a way that guarantees no company can turn him away because of an absent-minded moment at age 20.

"If you go out, you have to know that there will be people that will snap your picture and try to catch you doing stuff," Forsythe said. "You kind of have to look over your shoulder because of it. It's an annoying way to live, but as an athlete in college, you have to watch out.

"It's not fair. But that's the way it is."

This aspect of the dangers of Facebook frightens Long and Smith. Long said he'd hate to see "something you put up as an inexperienced, immature 19-year-old come back to haunt you when you're 23 and going for that job."

Smith said the most frustrating part about Facebook is that the female athletes he educates could act as responsibly as possible and still be linked to misconduct. All it takes is one moment of indiscretion, matched by a fellow Facebook user with a camera phone.

"While you might be careful about what you post, it's the six degrees of separation that can get you," Smith said. "You don't know what the friend of a friend of a friend is doing, and how that could affect you."

For that reason, some athletes feel the risks outweigh the benefits.

"I don't think it's a good idea for college athletes to be on these sites because there are so many things that can go wrong with it," former Arkansas golfer Stacy Lewis said.

Still, Lewis admits she has a Facebook profile. She explains the paradox by saying she vows to be careful with what she posts and who she allows to view her profile.

Then again, she just became a professional on the LPGA Tour. Her money-making potential isn't in question. For so many others at Arkansas, life after college is dicier. And even the slightest misstep can be costly.

"We tell our students that while you might not think it's fair, it's reality. Employers are looking," said Angela Williams, associate director of the University of Arkansas Career Development Center. "We are hearing from companies, and it's happening. It could have a negative impact on your job search, and you could lose a job.

"We tell them to not have anything on the site that you wouldn't want in the local paper or seen by your parents."

THAT FIGURES

The Morning News used the Facebook search tool to discover which Arkansas athletes had created profiles on the Web site and found that 275 of 461 did. Sixty percent of Arkansas' male athletes have Facebook profiles, while 59.2 percent of its female athletes do. Arkansas' rosters for the 2007-08 season were used for the study.

Sport Total Athletes Those With Facebook Profiles

Football 122 76

Men's Track 44 25

Women's Track 44 21

Baseball 39 27

Swimming and Diving 25 20

Softball 25 17

Women's Soccer 23 13

Men's Cross Country 22 10

Volleyball 16 10

Men's Golf 16 9

Men's Basketball 14 10

Women's Cross Country 14 7

Men's Tennis 13 5

Women's Basketball 12 6

Gymnastics 12 5

Women's Golf 11 6

Women's Tennis 9 8

Reader Comments (No comments posted.)

The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsibility of their authors. The Morning News does not review comments before their publication, nor do we guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by our comment policy. If you see a comment that violates our policy, please notify the web editor.