Sports talk personality Mike Golic (R), realizes he's no match for co-host Mike Greenberg (L) Tuesday morning. Greenberg lost his mind when discussing Washington Redskins linebacker Robert Henson's diatribe on Twitter.
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Robert Henson, benchwarmer Redskins linebacker, fails on Twitter
By Jimmy Orr | 09.22.09
Talk about fail.
Professional athletes using Twitter is certainly nothing new. It’s just that Washington Redskins linebacker Robert Henson decided to use his Twitter account for something novel — to attack his fans. Or, more accurately, fans of the team.
Henson, a rookie defensiveman who has rode the bench so far this season, didn’t like the booing he heard at the end of an extraordinarily ugly contest between his Redskins and the woefully awful St. Louis Rams.
Although Washington was able to eek out a 9 - 7 win in a mind-numbingly boring game, the passionate fans at Fed Ex field displayed their displeasure at the way the team won it. In their minds, the ‘Skins should have blown ‘em out.
These aren’t Jaguars fans, mind you. These are real football fans. The Redskins have sold out every game since 1969. You’d be hard-pressed to find more loyal fans in the NFL than in Washington, D.C. Hey, the proof’s in the attendance numbers. Only Denver can rival the record.
Dim Wits!!
Anyway, the benchwarmer took to Twitter to voice his dissatisfaction at what he must have perceived as the fans being unsupportive. After all, the home team won.
“All you fake half hearted Skins fan can .. I won’t go there but I dislike you very strongly, don’t come to Fed Ex to boo dim wits!!” he tweeted.
His followers didn’t appreciate being called dim wits, so they tweeted back at him. Then Henson went nuclear.
“No I didn’t play but I still made more than you in a year and you’d [gladly] switch spots with me in a second,” he boasted.
That’s how to get the fans on your side. Boast about how much money you make. Then, for your next trick, how about criticizing what your fans do? Wish granted…
“The question is who are you to say you know what’s best for the team and you work 9 to 5 at Mcdonalds,” he offered.
Wonderful. That’ll show ‘em.
Raving like a madman
Mike Greenberg, co-host of the morning sports talk show “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” is normally the meeker of the two sports personalities. Not this morning. Henson’s actions so enraged Greenberg, that his partner — a former professional football player — looked like Mother Teresa next to him.
Greenberg lost his mind.
“Robert,” Greenberg said as if speaking to Henson, “the guy who works 9 - 5 at McDonald’s had every bit as much to do with the outcome and the victory on Sunday as you did.”
Then the decibels increased….
“You might want to consider not insulting your fans and insulting hard-working people who, by the way, have been long since priced out of coming to your games so they can pay you some ridiculously inflated salary to do nothing on Sunday. To do nothing!”
“That is the most insulting thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he ranted with the appearance of spittle flying throughout the studio. “This guy should shut up!”
They deserved it!
The sporting world, thus far, doesn’t seem to have any sympathy for him. Some sports columnists give him a little slack for his initial tweet. You shouldn’t boo your team after they won, they say.
Not so, says diehard Redskins fan and political blogger Oliver Willis.
“They deserved it,” Willis writes, defending the fans’ verbosity. “The Redskins were playing one of the worst teams in the league and yet couldn’t muster a single touchdown, while also giving the Rams the first TD of the year.”
Bye-bye
Regardless, Henson can clearly dish it out. So certainly he can take it too. After all he’s 6′0″ and 242 pounds. He’s a linebacker. He can take a little criticism, right?
Apparently not. Henson deleted his Twitter account. You can see a cached version of it here, however.
But if he ever does play a game for the Redskins this year, the fans will undoubtedly Twitter their remarks in person.
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2. Passive NFL Scout | 09.23.09
He’s football smart, but that’s as far as it goes. Robert Henson showed his judgement during the Redskins last preseason game, so the twit shouldn’t have surprised anyone. I was shocked he made the team over Cody after all of those crazy penalties and mistakes crammed into less than an entire exhibition game. Gibbs never would have accepted that from a player, so Robert wouldn’t have even been in the position to break Gibbs #1 rule during the regular season: Don’t embarrass the Redskins.
3. The Boy | 09.23.09
The best way to appease booing Redskins fans would be to put the ball in the endzone on a regular basis and then maybe try sacking some QBs. Jimmy Orr is right. Redskins fans are “real football fans”, and if a player becomes a fan favorite in Washington they’re immortalized. Tweeting your gripes about the fans can’t be the right way to win them over.
4. Nikola | 09.23.09
Sorry, but stuff like this bugs me: you wrote “to eek out” when you should have written “to eke out.” (Doesn’t matter how scary the Redskins are!)
5. threefour66 | 09.23.09
After his short stay in the NFL, he’ll join the 78% of financial distressed ex NFL player’s and be addressing the McDonald worker’s as BOSS.
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1. Dan | 09.22.09
i too think that was very not human and i did say not human . i have been a long time redskin fan forever>….and i did not like that from that bench linebacker…… i hope he dont play….