But first, this CAA aside.
This blogger is suspicious that CAA's Condon's choices seem to get on a media hype train. Yes, Tom Condon has represented seven of the past eight overall NFL Draft number one picks, but that doesn't happen without a whole train of people working in concert to make that happen, including the media: in January, Sports Illustrated's Andrew Perloff (also of The Dan Patrick Show), and who's a friend of this blogger, made a point of referring to CAA and Tom Condon (who also represents the Indianapolis Colts Peyton Manning) as a "powerful agency."
Why Andrew? Powerful how?
My Spider-Sense tells me that, on top of hiring former NFL coaches like Terry Shea to help Gabbert, CAA Football works the press. To have so many writers refer to one person as "powerful" - producing 57,100 results in a Google search when one controls for "tom condon" - is down right scary and interesting.
Does the media fear upsetting Condon? I guess we'll see. The former head of IMG Football has a ton of great relationships, and he is personable, from experience, but that doesn't mean one can't question why one of his clients is rising so fast, in this case, Blaine Gabbert.
Whatever the reason, social media provides a small window into who Blaine Gabbert is.
Blaine Gabbert On Twitter
From his Twitter page @BlaineGabbert, we will learn that Gabbert likes to fish. A lot, it appears. Moreover, the Mizzou signal-caller who was one bad call away from an Insight Bowl win seems pretty good at it.
In a tweet exchange with Missouri Basketball Guard Kim English, Gabbert appeared to be referring to a classmate called "Stuttering Stanley" as an, in caps, IDIOT. This is how it went down:
Englishscope24 Kim EnglishAnd English tweeted back..
Its going smooth as the 08 #CottonBowl RT @Hogtrough Hey @englishscope24 how is the speech impediment coming along? Stuttering Stanley!
10 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
One of the people who retweeted that statement was Gabbert:
Englishscope24 Kim English
by BlaineGabbert
Its going smooth as the 08 #CottonBowl RT @Hogtrough Hey @englishscope24 how is the speech impediment coming along? Stuttering Stanley!
10 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
And then he tweeted...
BlaineGabbert Blaine Gabbert
@Englishscope24 that dude is an IDIOT
10 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
Englishscope24 Kim EnglishNow to the common reader is looks like Gabbert's referring to someone who stutters as an idiot. Presumably because that person has a speech impediment. In a time when many are hyper-sensitive to such comments and tweets, for Gabbert to allow himself to look like someone who would do such a thing shows that the CAA hype machine has a weakness when it comes to social media.
@
@BlaineGabbert lol. Yea. "Stuttering Stanley" was a big hit in 3rd grade.
10 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
Mr. Condon's got to sit down with his client.
Now, peering deeper into the tweets, it looks like Gabbert was referring to another person on Twitter, and involving issues surrounding the departure of Missouri Basketball Coach Mike Anderson to Arkansas. But it's not clear, and English's tweet about "Stuttering Stanley" being "a hit" in the 3rd grade points away from the possibility.
And even if Gabbert was actually making fun of English, the choice of words in that situation was terrible considering what's on the line: the difference between being the number one pick in the NFL Draft and a $50 million bonus, versus a lower level, say, number 22, and a $10 million bonus.
Or even less.
The message is clear: Mr. Blaine Gabbert, you're in the public spotlight now. A public figure. People are watching what you tweet on Twitter. Be careful.
One wrong tweet could cost you millions.