Headline: Philadelphia Eagles fire employee for calling them 'retarted' on Facebook
In a comment on my previous post questioning when it is ok to twitter, David Wong advised my son never to post anything he'll be ashamed about later. Many of us have heard stories about Facebook preventing people from getting jobs, but now there’s a well documented story of someone losing their job, poor Dan Leone.
I should note that, regarding the headline, most life long Philly fans can’t spell much other than E-A-G-L-E-S, and even that must be done verbally with help from a crowd of cheesesteak filled drunkards. You don’t have to look any further than my own blog to know that. But that's not the point, now is it? We're talking about a medium where people follow their sports teams and talk trash.
In a nutshell, this guy lost his part time gig because he called out his employer, the “Iggles,” for making what he (and many fans, including yours truly and my nephew) was a silly move by letting perennial all pro, and ferocious leader of the Eagle Nation, Brian Dawkins go to the Denver Broncos as a free agent. Story can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/d3ge22.
Headline: Brian Dawkins to give tickets to fired Eagles employee
But there is a small silver lining here for the fired employee and a lesson for Facebook users. Because he was so public about his support, Mr. Dawkins (aka Mr. Eagle), godlove him, will be giving Leon two of his alloted tickets to the game when the Broncos come to town. As a result of this latest kindness by Dawkins, Leone continues to get press coverage for his use of facebook:http://tinyurl.com/dn6xv8
He was on several TV shows, ESPN, Radio Shows, and now he is back in the press because of this news about the tickets. He has basically become a celebrity among Eagles fans and is getting more than 5 minutes of fame.
6 of the 10 top results in google (and 14 of the top 20) are for now for Dan Leone “former Eagles' game-day worker canned for illegal use of the Facebook” instead of Dan Leone, “San Francisco icon and food writer extraordinaire” or Dan Leone “Executive Director at Ben Venue Laboratories.”
Facebook is the big winner in all this but I wonder does Dan regret posting that on Facebook or is he still enjoying the media swirl around his “retarted” comment? We can expect Leone to get a standing ovation and plenty of coverage when he goes to see that game against the Broncos.
Awesome!
And hey, BDawk, can hook me and my nephew up, too?
