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.

I don’t always read Chad Ochocinco’s Twitter feed, but when I do I prefer unbridled shenanigans.

I was monitoring it pretty closely yesterday to see what sort of post-game bromance between Chad and Darelle Revis would ensue, strangely – mind-boggling inexplicably actually – nothing too excited came of that; he alluded he might make good on his promise to change his name back to Chad Johnson, then a few more bruh, bruh’s, and that’s about it.





In far more engaging, and whimsical, developments yesterday via Twitter, Ochocinco personally sought out Giants stadium staple, and the face of the J-E-T-S chants, Fireman Ed.





Chad’s query was answered by ESPN producer Jason Romano, which garnered him a shout out from a thankful Ocho who apparently is going to hook Fireman Ed with a trip to Cincy (“Enjoy the jungle”) for the game on Saturday.





Last week, Fireman Ed was made the subject of some of Ocho’s more inventive trash talk directed at the Jets and Revis, saying he was going to get his own Bengals fire hat made (no idea if he did), get up on the goal post or a linebacker’s shoulders, then quiet the Giants stadium crowd and get them to chant O-C-H-O.

The Daily News reported at the time…

“I have one that is going to be so good. Everybody listening? You know the guy in the stands with the fireman hat (Fireman Ed) that quiets the stadium? OK, I have my own fireman hat made, but it doesn’t say Jets. It’s a Bengals fireman hat. When I score, I’m going to sit on top of the goal post and then I’m going to quiet the stadium like he does…

“I had this planned in the offseason. All I could think about is the guy who gets on the big guy’s shoulders and he quiets the stadium and does the Jets-Jets-Jets thing. Hopefully the fans of New York will give me the same respect. When I score, I’m going to get on my lineman’s shoulders and I’m going to quiet the stadium.

“I want everybody to say Ocho, O-C-H-O. You guys write about that. Get it out there and tell them to please cooperate.”

After Sunday night’s loss, Ocho’s clearly showing Fireman Ed much respect – strangely so were the broadcast team of Chris Collinsworth and Al Michaels at one point during the game. Just don’t be surprised if this Saturday the Bengals win and Chad brings out a whole troupe of Hooters girls wearing orange fire hats.

…

In other news, Collinsworth has a rapier wit. Did anyone catch this exchange?

Michaels: You think [Rex Ryan] has a layer of thermals on under there?

Collinsworth: I think he was born with a layer of thermal.

And with that, we close the book on another NFL regular season.