In the age of social media, fans are able to connect with their favorite athletes quicker and easier than ever before. In an instant and with just a few keystrokes, a person can tweet at an athlete and weigh in on any topic their heart desires.
Unfortunately, there are times when that power is abused, and we saw such an incident on Sunday. When Chicago Bears safety Chris Conte peeled off his coverage of Green Bay Packers WR Randall Cobb and allowed him to waltz into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown, the internet exploded in a fit of rage.
Some of it was directed at the Twitter account @ChrisConte, but there’s one problem:
The account doesn't belong to the Chris Conte that plays for the Bears. Rather, the owner is Nashville-area reporter Chris Conte who was the recipient of the vitriol, and it took a while for folks to get the memo that they were flaming the wrong person.
Ironically, Chicago Conte deleted his Twitter account earlier this season after fans razzed him ferociously on the website.
It started out so nicely after Chicago Conte made an interception of Aaron Rodgers in the end zone in the first quarter:
@chrisconte Nice interception!!! #FootballSunday #dabears — Evie Jacobs (@eviej99) December 29, 2013
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It didn’t last. Here is a sampling of the anger that Nashville Conte received:
#Bears @ChrisConte has to be the WORST safety of ALL time. You personally blew the Bears chances of the playoffs! — Robert P. Pienkowski (@RobPienkowski) December 30, 2013
@chrisconte u are the worst safety in the nfl #bears — RKI Fantasy Football (@RonKarkoviceFF) December 30, 2013
After some of the anger had subsided, fans began to realize that Nashville Conte wasn’t the safety that they were looking for:
Things I learned today: 1) The Bears have a safety named Chris Conte, who is not Nashville reporter @chrisconte. — Genny Carter (@gencarter) December 30, 2013
@chrisconte would you like to play safety in the NFL? I will trade our Chris Conte for you straight up. I'm sure he can read the news — Scott Turek (@ScottTurek) December 30, 2013
Alas, some people still didn’t get the memo:
@chrisconte I'm sorry bud but I don't think you're cut out as a starting safety #specialteamsmaybe #practicesquad — Angel Cabral (@AngelCabral265) December 30, 2013
To his credit though, Nashville Conte kept a level head throughout all of it, and had a simple request for the good people at Twitter:
I better get @verified after dealing with all this tonight!! #MeanTweets — Chris Conte (@chrisconte) December 30, 2013