Tweet & Sour World of Donte Stallworth

The "Sounds of Silence" once rang loud and true.

Those sounds are louder today ... People talking without speaking ... people hearing without listening ...

Consider the past few months for Donte Stallworth.

Since he was suspended Aug. 13 by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, one of Stallworth's main forms of
communication with the public has been via Twitter.

This week, Stallworth was reinstated by the NFL and released by the Cleveland Browns.

He then posted this "tweet" about new Browns GM Tom Heckert: "LOVE TOM HECKERT!!!!! He was my guy in Philly & he's my guy now ... always... nothing but love from me to him ..."

This came after Heckert had terminated the wide out's contract.

In his brief time in Cleveland, Stallworth caught 17 passes, earned $9.6 million and was often injured. He was affable and friendly in the locker room, but made little impact on the field.

Then came March 14, 2009.

That morning, while driving with a blood alcohol level of .126 (well above the legal limit in Florida), Stallworth hit and killed a construction worker on a causeway en route to Key Biscayne.

Mario Reyes, 59, somehow did not notice Stallworth, who had flashed his lights and honked his horn to warn Reyes he was approaching.

Reyes stepped into the road outside a crosswalk and was killed when hit by Stallworth. A man walking to catch a bus after work died when struck by a Bentley.

Stallworth pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter and spent 24 days of a 30-day sentence in jail. In August, two days after the guilty plea, Goodell suspended Stallworth for the entire season.




Goodell then reinstated him this week. Stallworth's comment: "Thanks everybody for their support & who sent positive messages to me regarding my reinstatement, much appreciated ... thank you & God bless."

The thank you went to many who bombarded Stallworth with "tweets" welcoming him back and encouraging him to join their team -- be it the Patriots, Jets, Lions or Eagles.

The upbeat attitude matched Stallworth's recent "tweets," where he became part political observer, part workout maven, frequent philosopher -- and, most of all, someone who was constantly upbeat.

Stallworth's present attitude seems to mesh with the public statement attributed to him the day he was suspended.

That statement read: "I am a good person who did a bad thing. I will use the period of my suspension to reflect, fulfill my obligations, and use this experience to make a positive impact on the lives of those who look up to NFL players."

His "tweets" were a little different, though.

Just prior to the suspension he wrote: "NIGHT YALL .... PRAY FOR YA BOY PLZ... I CAN FEEL IT IN THE AIR!! KEEPING MY FINGERS CROSSED ... TOES TOO (eeeeewww) GOD BLESS."

Shortly after the suspension he wrote: "TO ALL MY FAM IN THE LEAGUE: GOD BLESS YALL, STAY HEALTHY, GOOD LUCK THIS SEASON!!! I'M WATCHIN EVERY DAMN GAME ..."

This week, one of his tweets read: "'The barking of a dog does not disturb the man on a camel.'-Egyptian Proverb."

Presumably Stallworth is the man on the camel ... because many of his other tweets deal with getting through challenges.

On Feb. 4, he posted: "'Gotta crawl before you walk, gotta think before you talk, damn right they gon hate, but baby I'm straight' -Young Jeezy."

Three days earlier he wrote: "Happiness is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them."

The day before the accident, Stallworth was paid a $4.5 million roster bonus. He and Braylon Edwards -- present Jet and former Brown – spent the evening and early morning hours at the Fountainbleu Hotel.

Stallworth drove home alone, slept for a few hours, then woke early and decided to get breakfast. It was then that he hit Reyes -- after trying to warn Reyes with his lights and horn.

Stallworth and the Reyes family came to a financial settlement, terms of which have not been disclosed.

During his time off, Stallworth quoted some famous folks in his tweets. One was Aristotle: "We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds."

Another was Malcolm X: "Thr's no better than adversity. Every defeat/heartbreak/loss/contains it own seed/lesson on how2 improve ur performance next time."

Stallworth seemed to spend a lot of time at the gym, even videoing himself at a workout: "Sun is shining BRIGHT out here in Miami ... About to make breakfast then head out to get this workout in... I'M FOCUSED MAN!!!!!!"

The best glimpse into his drive came when he tweeted that "Thomas Jefferson studied for 15 hours/day when he was out of school ... I'm taking that same approach w/my grind ... you do the math, I'm on it ."

Stallworth commented throughout Barack Obama's first State of the Union address, remarked how much he likes CNN's Soledad O'Brien ("I REALLY love me some @Soledad_OBrien check her out on CNN") and admired the play of LeBron James and Dwayne Wade in a Cavs-Heat game.

He left no doubt that he believes he will be back in the NFL this season.

"'3 weeks from now,'" he wrote. "'I will be harvesting my crops... Imagine where you will be... & it will be so... ' -Maximus (Gladiator)."

In the "Sounds of Silence," Paul Simon sang that the "words of the prophet are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls." At the time, Twitter was not a word -- at least not in the computer context.

In "The Boxer," Simon wrote and sang that "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."

"Much love to all," Stallworth tweeted on Feb. 5. "I love you all even if you feel indifferent about me... there's NO hate in this heart!! be safe God bless."