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Athens, GA (Mar 9, 2009) - As more and more athletes, on-air broadcast talent, and media types join social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, they really need to tune in to the risks they face when posting on the sites/tools. And their employers better do some boning up on how to deal with what these people may post online.

Dan Leone, who works as the west gate chief on game days learned a painful lesson about this. The Philadelphia Eagles (or their evenet management vendor) fired him for posting his thoughts about the Eagles losing Brian Dawkins to free agency.

There is no simple way to put this: The EAGLES WERE WRONG IN DOING THIS, and they have created more of a public relations problem by taking this action. It is almost certain that the Eagles they have nothing in their human resources policy that addresses this type of situation. Why do I say this? Because most organizations don't. By not having some formal policy or policies in place, they leave themselves exposed for legal proceedings.

On a more basic level, they should have joined the conversation instead of stifling it the way they did. Firing Leone was just plain stupid and they should give him his job back immediately.

In the mean time, I encourage the Eagle's management, and anyone else who might be interested, to read my article in Corporate Compliance Solutions Advisor entitled "Do You Know Your Blog Risk Factor". It applies to twitter and facebook as well.

'nuff said!

Related Link(s)

Eagles Fire Employee Who Complained ABout Dawkins' Departure (ProFootballTalk.com)
Cold Eagles sure are thin-skinned (John Gonzalez, Philadelphia Inquirer)