Is your mom on Twitter? If not, I’d say at this point there’s a 25% chance at this point she never will be. However, if she is, there’s at least a 25% percent chance she’s following Chad Ochocinco. I just took a quick gander at Chad’s recently added Twitter followers, and it’s a litany of could be middle aged moms. Thanks, Viacom.

I was interested in hearing about some new athletes out there worth following who, despite showing promise on Twitter, remain obscure, non-mainstream, questionably professional or – best yet – all of the above. I asked a group of my sports blogging constituents to contribute to a quick poll: Who’s the most fringe athlete that you follow? The list is good to the point that it inspired me to go the extra mile and create Fringe Athletes on Twitter Lists*.

First, mine: Gerald McCoy, the Tampa Bay Bucs’ first round draft pick.



I first became engrossed with Gerald on Twitter when he was pointing out his fellow draftees’ “wrist game” on Draft Night. Since then, here’s what Gerald’s been up (according to @GK_McCoy):

1.) He got a Droid
2.) He threw out the first pitch at a USA woman’s softball game vs. Japan
3.) He’s been enjoying the Twilight saga

Thurman Thomas (Isaac, Guyism)

He has over 21,000 Tweets right now, and I’m confident every single one of them occurred after his career ended in 2000. Thurman may be a Hall of Famer, but when it comes to Twitter, he remains largely misunderstood – the man has a Top-5 Stupid List (http://huggingharoldreynolds.blogspot.com/2010/05/thurman-thomas-dares-me-blocks-me-moves.html) and only 7,300 Followers.

The Iron Sheik (Eric, Camel Clutch Blog)

Is your mom on Twitter? There’s an 11% chance she follows the Iron Sheik.

These first two probably weren’t fringe enough for purists, it’s about to get super fringe on this list.

Leonard Weaver (Matt Lo Cascio, Jay Cutler Superstar)

If you didn’t know who Leonard Weaver is professionally (an NFL fullback), you wouldn’t learn from his Twitter bio. He’s currently using that forum to promote the Leonard Weaver Family Foundation (respectable) and ask people to help him name his new dog (sort of ridiculous). He’s currently calling that dog New Baby.

Mix Haxholm (Jared, The Atlantic Wire)

She’s a professional archer. A former Miss Thailand. And was recently named Cosmo’s Fun Fearless Woman. Less than a month into her Twitter tenure, but possessing a tremendous upside as she works towards the 2012 Olympics.

Todd Stottlemyre (Scott Lewis, TheScore.com)




When he submitted this, Lewis called ex-MLB pitcher Stottlemyre “the worst follow going” on account of the fact that he just tweets about stocks all day. I just scanned the feed, most recent conversations were around a recent life-changing Financial webinar that Stottlemyre was involved in.

Don’t worry, I didn’t add him to the Fringe Athletes Twitter list.

Speaking of great submission copy for athletes who probably don’t belong on this here…

Jose Canseco (Sooze, Babes Love Baseball)

“@JoseCanseco isn’t obscure at all, but he’s by far the biggest douchebag/delusional moron I follow on Twitter.” – Sooze





Andre Caldwell (Chris Richardson, Intentional Foul)



How annoyed is Viacom that this tweet only came from the Cincinnati Bengals third string Twitter wide-out?



Marcus Jordan (Ethan Jaynes, NESW Sports)




Michael Jordan’s son who averages 8.0 pp. for the University of Central Florida men’s basketball team – an all-around fringe human being, if you ask me. Worth following,  although he probably peaked during Game 7 of the Finals this season.

Robbie McEwen (Phil, Gunaxin)

This guy is an Australian cyclist, and even if you care very little about him you’ll want to hear what he has to say. Decorum is not his strong suit.



Here’s one linked to a video where he does a lot of effin’. Here’s another one linked to a photo Robbie referred to as “the best picture of the day” from Tour de France, Stage 10.

Dee Gordon (Paul Raymond, My Sports Rumors)

He’s the son of Tom “Flash” Gordon, and according to Raymond, one of the best hitting prospects in the Dodgers organization. Must be something. He’s got one of those fabled verified account with just 603 followers.

Last, but not the least fringe, not by a long shot: Jason Richards (Bob, Detroit For Lyfe)



It’s with a heavy heart that Bob, Davidson alum, submits Jason Richards, but I believe he decided to do it because he knew that Richards was almost too perfect for this list. here’s what he had to say:

“He’s a friend and also the point guard of the Stephen Curry-led Davidson squad that lost in the 2008 Elite Eight to Kansas. He’s the one Curry inexplicably passed to for the final shot that missed just left and crushed our itty bitty school’s hopes of reaching the Final Four.

Jason went on to play for the Miami Heat summer team and fall team after being undrafted. He tore his ACL in a fall practice,but got paid a handsome minimum contract because he was injured on their clock. After rehabbing and living luxuriously off that min. contract, he bounced around between Europe and D-League teams before re-tearing his ACL. All that in the past 2 1/2 years. He is now an assistant coach/film guy for Pitt’s basketball team.”

*Note: As soon as Twitter is not over capacity I’ll finish up that Twitter list.