Green Bay Packers Throw Unnecessary Jab at 49ers and Aldon Smith on Twitter

Social media has done wonderful things for the world, good and bad. It helps us stay in touch and reach out to people like we were not able to before. It also helps us stick our proverbial foot in our mouth when we say--or tweet--something that can easily be misconstrued.

Like what the Green Bay Packers sent out Thursday about the 49ers and Aldon Smith.

via Twitter

Here is the tweet in question:

Where do you draw the line on character? http://t.co/YlGjrsT7ub pic.twitter.com/PeihGdpWIq
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) April 17, 2014

Hmmm...that might not have been the best thing to send. The reason is pretty simple. Character has come in to serious question of late in the NFL. For years teams have looked the other way when it comes to the criminal element as long as a player doesn't have serious charges pending or is on the run from the law.

That's not happening anymore.

For various character related reasons (not all criminal) a number of players have lost their old jobs and been forced to look for new ones (Desean Jackson, Chris Johnson to name two). San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith is just the latest having been arrested recently after claiming he had a bomb at an airport security check.

There is a good chance that the 49ers will be without the services of Smith who has a couple of DUIs to his record not to mention weapons charges stemming from a party he had (and was stabbed in the leg at).

So yes, character is an issue. But should one team use the image of a player from another to talk about it? Some would say no--especially when the Packers have so many questionable characters of their own:

Hey @49ers, please respond to the @Packers with a picture of Mark Chmura. Or Brett Favre. Or Johnny Jolly. Or Darren freaking Sharper.
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) April 17, 2014

Was Green Bay wrong to use Aldon Smith's image? No; he does have questionable character. Should they have used another? Yes.

The link in the tweet is to a post that has a very small part about character and the criminal element in the NFL. There are many, many other things covered in the post that could have been used, but by calling out a player from another team and stirring the pot they get more eyeballs on the post.

It's a cheap move, but that's modern day journalism for you.

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