Pittsburgh Steelers & ESPN Beat Writer Brown Blows Gasket On Twitter

Scott Brown has been covering the Steelers for six years – most of that time with the Tribune-Review.  ESPN this past season hired on beat writers for every NFL team in an attempt to give a centralized focus to each team rather than the generalized coverage that came from Divisional writers – which meant (thank God) no more Jamison Hensley and his Ravens slanted views).  For the most part, Brown’s coverage has been good and enjoyable to read.  However, this weekend, Brown went ballistic and went all Dez Bryant-like on some of his followers on Twitter.

Brown went all cray cray on a few followers when one in particular, @ChrisDokish, challenged the coaching situation at Penn State University.  What was reasonable criticism of the options for a new head coach at PSU, quickly turned into a debate about the culture of football and sports at the university level, then to Brown attacking anyone that was willing to enter the Twitter arena.  I saw the tail end of this conversation on Saturday night, and looked into it further.

As the saying goes ‘S*&% get’s crazy’ from there.  Eventually John Ziegler of all people comes to Brown’s aid.  He even offered up to clean Chris’ dear old ‘clock’ if ESPN wouldn’t honor a debate on air.  Some things can’t be viewed anymore but I’ve read that he started to get rather personal with people and called out someone’s sister.

Brown is a PSU alumnus, so it’s understandable that he might be a little protective of his former school, the football program, and JoePa when it comes to the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal (a wound still a little fresh).  But, this little Twitter war seemed above and beyond the call of duty as it were.  Brown really exposed himself as someone who can be pretty mean and get rather personal for no reason.  Kind of a big no no when you are a professional sports writer… or at least want to be viewed as one.

I’ll admit that I’ve had my own moments on Twitter when I’ve said some things that might be questionable as to its ‘professional weight,’ such as when I’ve called out guys like Ian Rapoport.  But, I would never go as far as attacking someone personally.

ESPN hasn’t reacted to this behavior yet, and it’s unclear as to what Brown’s future will be for ESPN or the Tribune-Review.