I worked with this guy earlier this year and he was, without a doubt, the most boring fellow I have ever had the displeasure to meet in my entire life.

Humorless, listless and seemingly perma-beige, he was so singularly soporific; I had to pre-load a double espresso prior to our every encounter to avoid a rapid onset of coma followed by drool.

So when he let it slip that he was on Twitter, naturally I couldn’t resist seeing what it was like to live in his world:

“Why are there so many flies in my house today?”

“Why is Starbucks service so slow today?”

“Despite the threat of rain, I AM going to wash my car.”

And so it went, on and on and on. Post after post demonstrating a remarkable lack of self-awareness at the mind-numbing tediousness of his very existence.

I checked back this morning. He has over 650 followers.

That’s Twitter – Lots of people following lots of other people for no other reason than they are followable on Twitter.

Now this phenomenon has taken on a whole new dimension because athletes, who tend not to be boring, have jumped into it big time – and that has all sports leagues and teams very concerned with what to do about it.

Finally – due to the invention of 140-character microblogging – the corporate sports filter has come off. No longer can they manage the message when their charges are unleashed with no method to control them – except after the fact. It’s like drunk dialling except not just the ex-girlfriend gets the memo – the entire world does.

The first indication of a sports organization applying an official policy came Monday. As the players were filing into the USTA’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center they were greeted with this posted pretty much all over the place:

“Important. Player Notice. Twitter Warning.”

“It is important to warn you of some of the dangers posted by       Twittering as it relates to the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program Rules.”

The idea being, if some player sees another in the locker-room and their leg is hanging off or something, they’ve got to keep it to themselves as it might lead to some illegal advantage for those who dabble in the odd sports wager.

Which is of course, stupid. Or as one player, the 2003 U.S. Open Champ Andy Roddick, put it “you would seriously have to be a moron to send ‘inside info’ through a tweet.”

Where did he write that? On Twitter.

This is a refreshing change from the recent, mostly boring, past. Athletes are coached within an inch of their lives by PR people on how to deal with the media. This is different. Twitter is just them blabbering out loud in short easy to distribute bursts to any or all who might be interested. And, if a fan asks them something interesting, they may even interact back.

Athletes love it. Fans love it.

And eventually, so will the sports leagues.

Just like any new technology, big businesses take a while to figure out what something is – and then what to do about it.

At first, like with Twitter right now, it’s the Wild, Wild West.

Then they embrace it – finding ways to make it work for them and not against them.

And finally, they come up with a formula to monetize it, usually through corporate sponsorship, eventually ruining it.

But in the meantime, here we are given interesting open access, for better or for worse, to the athletes of our choice.

I’ve been on Twitter for about a year and the fellers I follow are, in no particular order: @stewartcink, @the_real_nash, @andyroddick (thus the inspiration for this post), @chrisbosh, @THE_REAL_SHAQ and @lancearmstrong.

Personally, I rarely post anything as my life is pretty much like my boring co-worker up there, however, if you are into that kinda thing, @couchmaster.

Cheers – Gavin McDougald – AKA Couch