Tweeting with T.O. on Twitter Defamation

Like all of us, Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens just wants to have a home. Unlike most of us, he needs that home to be in the Buffalo area.

As was reported by ESPN, who apparently follows T.O.'s tweets, Owens thought he finally had a home lined up, but was unhappy that his leasing agent provided details about it to the media. ESPN says the agent talked about the home to AP, giving some details, but didn't disclose the address. A local TV station later showed video of the inside of the house.

Which led to T.O. and I tweeting about defamation after he called his leasing agent out on Twitter.

This is how Owens expressed his Twitter unhappiness, in all caps to express big-time frustration:

W/THE RELEASE OF MY POTENTIAL RENTAL @ 34 WOODTHRUSH TR, I WILL NOT B RENTING DUE 2 THE UNPROFESSIONALISM OF MAUREEN FLAVIN!!

Yeah, even if I'm someone inclined to do sit-ups in my driveway, I'm not sure I want a television station filming the inside of my house. It's hard for celebs who are promoting the brand of themselves to figure out where to draw lines, but maybe that is one of them.

Even so, people with money, like T.O., have to be concerned that even if they have been done wrong, they run the risk of that person suing them if they call out someone by name. That's our society. Anyone can file a lawsuit, though whether they can win it is a different question.

So, because I try to be a helpful person in general, I tweet back:

@terrellowens81 Not legal advice but rich guys need to worry about Twitter defamation re: your rental. Ask Courtney Love.

For those who are unaware, Courtney Love got sued for defamation relating to some unhappy things she wrote about someone else via her Twitter account.

Do I think T.O. is going to get sued in this particular situation? If I am looking at this from afar, with my lawyer hat on, I'd think probably not, especially if as public reports suggest he had a confidentiality agreement that the leasing agent may have violated. Truth is a defense for defamation, but if you are a celeb with money, you don't really want to risk to getting to the point where you need that defense.

I wasn't really thinking T.O. would respond back, but he responds to a lot of people, and this is what he said:

@StephStradley i mean, seriously, wht cn i do? tht'll b sumthin else 4 the media 2 jump on & say it's my fault! i cn never b innocent! lol

Yup, sometimes things are so crazy or overblown, you just have to lol. I truly like when athletes (and media) have the ability to use various forms of social media to interact directly with sports fans. And certainly, I don't want that to be discouraged. I think more often than not, it can be a good thing. But any time there is more communication, especially among people who don't know each other well, it's just good to be a little cautious. Or in other words:

@terrellowens81 If folks trash you, it usually says more about them than you. It's cool, just be careful.

Some people use the social networking site Twitter to try to get democratic change in Iran. Owens is using Twitter as yet another way to show the T.O. inside the helmet and what is happening in his life directly. I'm using Twitter because my sister, who is a social media goddess among other things, told me I should. I signed up because I was afraid someone else was going to claim my name.

Twitter will just have to do until we all just communicate with the electrodes implanted in our brains.