Chiefs Twitter Account Tells Fan To ‘Get a clue’

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

After getting smashed 40-24 by the Atlanta Falcons at Arrowhead Stadium to open the 2012 NFL season, the last thing the Kansas City Chiefs needed was more bad PR.

But that’s exactly what they got.

The whole fiasco started when a disgruntled fan, Travis Wright, used Twitter to express his displeasure with the team’s recent lack of salary cap spending.

The Chiefs Twitter account then replied to Wright, via a direct message.

Then the Chiefs blocked him on Twitter.

Yikes.

Unfortunately for the person who runs the KC Twitter account, Wright was the wrong guy to trifle with. He went to Reddit and posted the the tweets.

The story blew up, and blew up quickly. As of this posting, the Reddit post has more than 1200 up-votes and 500+ comments.

Predictably, the Chiefs Twitter account apologized.

I found out about this last evening while I was out watching a play. It wasn’t until later when I got home that I saw Wright’s tweet to the Chiefs.

A big deal will be made about this story and rightfully so. But let’s clear a few things up.

1. The “Chiefs” are represented by this Twitter account, but let’s be real here: This was one employee who royally screwed up. This does not indicate that the Chiefs hate their fans. Not every company can control all their employees at every second. Sometimes, a candy wrapper just gets dropped in the stairwell.

2. Wright’s tweet was childish. He has a right to express himself but sending a profanity-laced tirade tweet to the Chiefs accomplishes nothing. It may have made Wright feel better about the loss but that is about it.

We do our fair share of criticizing of the Chiefs around here. They deserve it.

But when you send a tweet to the Chiefs twitter account telling Clark Hunt to “FO” you aren’t reaching Hunt, just the person who runs the Twitter account for the Chiefs.

I would guess this story will get even bigger today, and the Chiefs may have to answer for it publicly, beyond just a tweet.