Colorado Rockies first-round pick Ryan Rolison admitted to writing what he described as an ‘immature’ Tweet from 2012, suggesting someone should assassinate then-President Barack Obama.
‘It was in 2012 and it was a stupid tweet,’ Rolison told The Athletic after the Tweet was revealed earlier in the week. ‘It was immature of me. I had no idea what I was talking about.’
The Tweet, which was made on election night, seemed to have been written after Obama secured the victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney: ‘Well we have one hope left … if someone shoots him during his speech.’
The 20-year-old starting pitcher has since deleted the Tweet.
Rolison’s Tweet came just after Barack Obama secured his second term in office
Rolison, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound southpaw, was the 22nd-overall pick of the MLB Draft
Rolison described his 2012 Tweet about Obama as ‘stupid’ and ‘immature’
Colorado does check potential draft picks’ social media history, but clearly missed Rolison’s misguided Tweet. Still, general manager Jeff Bridich wasn’t concerned over something Rolison wrote before he was legally allowed to drive.
‘It was a long time ago,’ Bridich told The Athletic. ‘It was regrettable. If there was some pattern of behavior, then we’d be talking about a whole different topic. But in this world we live in, in this Twitterverse and all this social media, these things are going to happen. Especially when it’s fully available to individuals who are not yet adults or thinking like adults.
‘I mean, look at it, not even adults make good decisions on Twitter,’ Bridich said.
Rolison, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound southpaw, is not the first promising, young athlete to have his social media history criticized publicly.
The Buffalo Bills drafted quarterback Josh Allen after Yahoo Sports reported that the Wyoming product used the n-word in since-deleted tweets as a high schooler. In one response to the question ‘Why are you so white?’, he reportedly replied: ‘If it ain’t white, it ain’t right!’
In April, after helping Villanova win the NCAA Basketball Tournament, guard Donte DiVincenzo was found to have written the n-word as a high schooler in a series of tweets, several of which were simply quotes from rap lyrics.
The school initially claimed DiVincenzo’s account was hacked before withdrawing that statement.
Now DiVincenzo is preparing for this month’s NBA Draft, where he could become a first-round pick.
The Buffalo Bills drafted quarterback Josh Allen after Yahoo Sports reported that the Wyoming product used the n-word in since-deleted tweets as a high schooler. In one response to the question ‘Why are you so white?’, he reportedly replied: ‘If it ain’t white, it ain’t right!’
As a high schooler, Donte DiVincenzo Tweeted an offensive Meek Mill song lyric. It’s unlikely that the social media misstep will hurt him during this month’s NBA Draft
Donte DiVincenzo was Villanova’s hero during the Final Four, but later faced scrutiny over Tweets he had written as a high schooler, some of which were references to rap lyrics