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SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Other than the occasional season-ending injury, not much news happens at most NFL training camps. You could describe the action almost every day in a single sentence.

That makes training camp a perfect vehicle for "Twitter," the social-networking Web site that has begun to infiltrate the traditionally paranoid world of pro football.

For the uninitiated, Twitter gives you 140 characters to answer the question "What are you doing?" Those messages go out to everyone following your Twitter account via computer or cellular phone.

It's fast. It's superficial. And in a short-attention-span world, it's a massive hit. When the Twitter server went down for nearly three hours Thursday, thousands of tweets about what various people were having for breakfast in America tragically went unsent.

At least eight Panthers already Twitter, although Jake Delhomme certainly doesn't. He likes to make fun of kickoff specialist Rhys Lloyd's frequent (and frequently entertaining) tweets.

Lloyd-clearly the MVP of Panther Twitter-ers thus far-wrote the other day: "Jake just told me to Twitter and tell everyone he just used hand sanitizer. I feel a hint of sarcasm from his voice."

Lloyd has been joined on Twitter by safety Chris Harris, linebacker Jon Beason, running back Jonathan Stewart, cornerback C.J. Wilson, quarterback Matt Moore and rookie defensive linemen Corvey Irvin and Everette Brown. All of them have been smart enough to avoid big misfires as of yet, like the one that San Diego cornerback Antonio Cromartie launched the other day from his Twitter account.

Cromartie complained about the "nasty food" at Chargers' training camp, then drew a parallel from that cuisine to the fact San Diego hasn't made the Super Bowl lately. The Chargers fined Cromartie $2,500.

The tweets sent by Panthers players are more mundane but do occasionally offer a peek behind the curtain.

Harris wrote Thursday: "I'm not gonna complain that I have to practice in the hot sun on my birthday. I'm just grateful that I have a great job to go to on my bday."

After linebacker Jon Beason suffered a minor injury earlier in camp, he tweeted: "Just a sprain. Relax!"

And Lloyd tweets about everything, from taking an NFL-mandated drug test to wanting chicken salad for lunch. He has called Delhomme a "muppet" in several tweets, which the Dover, England native explained to me Thursday is like calling someone a "goofball" in Great Britain.

"That's a polite way of putting it," Lloyd said.

Said Lloyd of his tweeting: "I've got a blog, too. But this is just easier.... In this, you only have 140 characters. I don't have time to sit there and write essays."

For context, of course, Twitter doesn't work.

It's just a tease. A headline. A taste.

But for training camps-heck, for many sports events in general-that's all that many of us really want.

By SCOTT FOWLER - McClatchy Newspapers
This Panthers training camp story has a Twitter-tweet tone - opinion - The Modesto Bee

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