Twitter and its Place in Professional Sports

Ever since Twitter became a huge social media networks you have seem the controversy between professional athletes and what they "tweet". The NFL was the first league to take action against twitter making a rule that players or coaches were forbid from tweeting during games as well as a certain amount of time before and after the game. Now that I can understand considering that teams want their athletes completely focused when it came to playing in games, but recently some professional sports have gone way overboard with their penalties regarding. Just about a week ago Knicks player J.R. Smith was fined $35,000 for posting what was considered an inappropriate picture of his girlfriend to twitter along with a funny caption to go along with it. While the post might have been stupid and immature of Smith, his twitter belongs to himself and himself only. The NBA needs to stay out of the players personal business regarding twitter as long as it is not violating any rules already made. Major league sports corporations need to keep a positive image of the athletes representing their league, but athletes' social media is for their own personal use and it is up to them to make wise decisions.