NFL's Twitter Takeover: Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow Mania

NFL fans, if you weren't avid twitter followers before, you will be now. The 2012 season is 157 days away, and the NFL is making sure you have football on the mind. And now, important plays are happening off the field. Twitter feeds have been blowing up as sources hash out the details of the latest football news. (See what I did there? #punny.)

As soon as Manning Mania hit, there was no question that Peyton was in, and Tim was out. Denver fans were already taping the number 18 over their number 15 jerseys and Twitter’s top trends were #Manning and #FreeTebow.

All of this happened before ink even hit the paper. So after the 5-year, $96 million contract was signed, Peyton Manning was locked in the "Mile High Club", and Twitter was following every step of the way.

A few weeks ago, you saw that Peyton Manning officially became a Bronco, Tim Tebow was traded to the New York Jets, Alex Smith re-signed with the 49ers, and the New Orleans Saints just lost their head coach for the season. Talk about March Madness.

And during all of this, the tweets were flying. Twitter has opened up a whole new market for the NFL. The more outlets there are to reach the public, the more business the NFL gets from us. When players tweet, we follow.

So when New York Jets cornerback, Antonio Cromartie tweeted: “We don't need Tebow. We sell out every home game let him go to Jacksonville Tampa or Miami,” the Jets PR team cringed and his followers retweeted this. And the NFL was loving all of it.

Expect the upcoming season to be an even bigger media circus for the Jets than before. Personally, I would have liked to see Tebow learning from Manning in Denver, or being the answer for Jacksonville. Now he’s officially playing under Mark Sanchez and will need to bring his best game to show up the returning quarterback. It won’t take much.

Remember when Tebow took over the reins from Kyle Orton and steered the Denver Broncos to the playoffs with a 8-5 record? Where were Mark Sanchez and his Jets? Oh right, watching from home. While New York fans might be excited to dump Sanchez, some of the players don’t share the same feeling.

Cue Cromartie.

We should be seeing Tebow on the field as soon as Sanchez screws up and Jets fans chant for Tebow Time. I would be lying if I said I won’t be cheering for Tebow alongside the many fans. It’s not that Sanchez can’t perform, but it’s always exciting when you get a new toy.

And we’re hoping that coach Rex Ryan can’t wait to try it out. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll throw Tebow into the rotation sooner rather than later.

After all these trades, we’re anxiously awaiting football season.

Until then, it’s back to our laptops. We wouldn’t want to miss a tweet.