In the latest NFL news, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick won the Associated Press 2010 NFL Coach of the Year, for the third time this decade. Belichick also won the coveted award back in 2003 and 2007. He is only one shy of Hall of Famer, Don Shula, who has won the award four times.

Coach Belichick received 30 of the 50 votes from a committee consisting of media members who regularly cover the NFL. Behind Bill were Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris who received 11 ½, and Chiefs Todd Haley who got 4 ½ . 4 other NFL coaches received one vote each, including: Falcons Mike Smith, Eagles Andy Reid, Bears Lovie Smith, and Rams Steve Spagnuolo.

Bill Belichick was heralded for making a successful transition of the New England Patriots to a much younger team. He led the Patriots to a 14-2 regular season record. His starting QB, Tom Brady was voted AP Offensive Player of the Year earlier this week.

“I will say the foundation of the Patriots organization, which starts with Mr. Kraft and Coach Belichick, has not changed since the day I arrived,” Brady said. “They have and will always do what is in the best interest of the team, and they will continue to find selfless players that love to work hard, compete and strive to be the best they can possibly be.”
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For the second time in 4 seasons, New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady won the Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year award. Brady set an NFL record of 355 consecutive passes without an interception. He received 21 of the 50 votes from a nationwide group of media members who covered the NFL.

In other NFL news this week…

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Is the NFL’s game plan to use Twitter a brilliant marketing strategy or are they opening themselves up to new public relation blunders?

This is the first NFL training camp where the NFL has featured Twitter as a new marketing vehicle to expand it’s reaches and bring football fans closer to the game.

While the NFL league office recommends that clubs allow their players to Tweet, some clubs don’t agree.

Take for instance, the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos. Both teams ban their players from tweeting from training camp. Bans go against a league memo sent last week to all teams that recommended best practices regarding Twitter. NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy stated “We recommended that clubs allow limited live reporting from practices that are open to the public, subject to the guidelines set by the clubs on the issue”.

There are also concerns among the clubs that players may not what they should and should not be tweeting. Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver Chad Ochocinco announced his intention to tweet from the sidelines during games, apparently not aware of the ban on any kinds of outside communications on game day. Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe decided to show how bored he was during first day of training camp by tweeting “ZZZZZZZZZZZ” from a meeting. He later tweeted that he was referring to an “administrative” meeting, not a team meeting. And now the San Diego Chargers ordered star cornerback Antonio Cromartie to pay $2500 for using Twitter to comment on the “nasty food” in training camp.

Although the use of Twitter will undoubtedly cause some PR problems, it offers the NFL a “free” venue to market it’s product worldwide, and brings the diehard football fans even closer to the game. Using Twitter also puts the NFL on the forefront in the new media age - where information is instantaneous and just a few keystrokes away.

The NFL’s decision to adopt as it’s social media venue is a brilliant marketing decision. You can bet that controversial Tweets by NFL players will only help promote NFL football.

source: technewsworld.com