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Camera Phones Robbing College Football Stars of Privacy

by Caleb Johnson on September 17, 2009 at 12:35 PM

With camera phones and professional autograph seekers lurking at every party, store, or restaurant, it has become much harder for high-profile college football players to go out in public. There's no quiet campus life for last year's Heisman Trophy finalists and star quarterbacks Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, and Tim Tebow anymore, says The New York Times.

Tebow told the paper that women try to remove their shirts while posing for a picture with him. McCoy even called the cops because a man was banging on his door and yelling his name late one night. Bradford was repeatedly accosted by an autograph seeker that wanted to profit from his signature.

If you think Michael Phelps caused a stir, just imagine if one of these golden boys were caught in a compromising position. With cameraphones being ubiquitous and digital distribution of images just a click away via Facebook or Myspace, these campus gods are forced to remain guarded from everyone except their teammates. Bradford's dad, Kent, put it best, when he told the New York Times: 'You don't know if you're actually having that picture made with a known gambler or a known prostitute or a known drug dealer.'

Of course, pictures showing up on the Internet is nothing new in the world of college sports scandals. Remember the pictures that surfaced of number-one NFL draft pick and former Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford during a weekend bender at a NASCAR race? How about that shot of former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn with his hand on another guy's crotch? Well, those dudes had it easy. Back in the innocent days before Twitter and Facebook, in the BC ('Before Cameraphone') era, athletes weren't under nearly as much scrutiny (or as vulnerable) as today's college athletes are. Nowadays -- thanks to increasingly discreet cameraphones with always-on connections to Facebook and Twitter -- it's even easier to snap pics in all kinds of places and situations without being noticed, and then get them out to everyone you know in (literally) a few seconds.

Have embarassing pictures of you ever shown up on Facebook or Twitter?
Yes2280 (17.8%)
No9175 (71.4%)
I'm not sure.1387 (10.8%)


These guys may be okay with the hassles that come with campus-wide fame, though. Come April 2010, all three should receive a nice fat check from an NFL team. That must be some consolation. Plus, the co-eds at Oklahoma, Texas and Florida can't be too bad, either. [From: The New York Times]
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Facebook Crime and Punishment

Facebook Crime and Punishment

    Blackmail
    Sending any personal info or incriminating pictures to someone on Facebook is a huge mistake for many reasons. One of the worst possible outcomes is getting blackmailed for money, sex, or, well, anything these sickos dream up. Really, whether they're using a fake profile or not, it's a horrible idea. Read up on the story of an 18-year-old who blackmailed 31 male classmates after he posed as a girl and asked for nude pictures. That's lesson enough.

    Impostors
    Sure, it can be harmless to impersonate a celeb online or create a fake profile for a movie character. But seriously, there's a definite line you shouldn't cross when pretending to be someone else and it can lead to dire consequences for you. Maybe it's not as extreme as the Moroccan man who was jailed for 43 days after creating a fake Facebook profile of a prince, but you never know. Just steer clear of it.

    Self-Incrimination
    Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.

    Suicide
    Social networking sites has been blamed for a lot of things, fairly and unfairly, but in our opinion, the worst offense has been their indirect involvement in suicides. Obviously, there are a lot of factors responsible in each case, but there does seem to be links between social networking and a rash of suicides, and obviously tehre's the case tragic of Megan Meier, who killed herself after a classmate's mom impersonated a teen boy and harassed her over Myspace.

    Murder
    We've reported on numerous incidents of people getting in trouble because of their online behavior. Now, people are becoming victims because of what they're doing on the Web too. In England, a man was convicted of murdering his estranged wife after she changed her relationship status to "single." So, be careful of who can see your profile and what you're doing, no matter how harmless it seems.

    Nigerian Scammers
    Oh, you thought this only happened via poorly worded emails, right? WRONG. Once people got wise to their old ways, these con men are turning to social networking sites for new targets. This time, they're hacking into people's accounts and impersonating them to ask for money, usually with some weird sob story. You can check out a transcript of one of these conversations here.

    Cooperation
    Even if the law isn't on a case, a victim, his friends, or empathetic strangers might be. Since it's easy to get word out for anything online, people are using blogs, forums, and social networking sites to help track down criminals. In one such case, a vehicle thief was tracked down by a bunch of anonymous car enthusiasts after the victim posted his story on a forum. In the end, they identified the guy through his Facebook profile.

    Self-Incrimination
    Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.

Tags: cameraphone, college, football, privacy, socialnetworking, sports, top

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