At the Online News Association’s annual conference, in San Francisco, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo was asked whom he would most like to see opining in 140-character bursts using his company’s service. Costolo did not hesitate.

“The quarterback of the New England Patriots, Tom Brady,” he said, according to Matt Pepin of Boston.com.

Costolo then admitted that he, like Brady, is a University of Michigan alum, so perhaps his answer was colored by that association.

Brady — who already gets more publicity than he knows what to do with — does not have a Twitter account, but more than 30,000 people follow the parody feed @TomBradysEgo.

MLB announced it would make its Twitter account private from noon to 6 p.m. on Thursday. According to Business of Sports, MLB sent out an email explaining the decision:

The MLB Twitter Account (@mlb) will be rolling out the digital red carpet and going COMPLETELY PRIVATE from noon-6pm ET. What does this mean? It means ONLY our Twitter followers will be able to participate in exclusive and one-of-a-kind giveaways and win prizes such as World Series tickets, mega-MLB.com shop gift cards and much, much more. Follow @mlb … before it’s too late.

During the early hours of the 6-hour block, the account’s feed consisted of promotional tweets with messages such as:

“Next up: We’re giving aways 2013 Opening Day tickets! Wanna go? Tweet “Hey @MLB, I want those Opening Day tickets! Come on!#MLBMembersOnly“

and

“We’re giving away 3 2013 @MLBTVsubscriptions. Want one? Tweet, “C’mon@MLB! Please let me win @MLBTV for 2013! I’ll be your best friend!”

MLB gained more than 7,000 additional followers between 10 a.m. and 1:20 p.m., but the move also received outside criticism for lack of professionalism from Awful Announcing’s Joe Lucia:

People generally make their accounts private so that they can avoid random people from looking at their tweets and only let approved people look at them… not so you can give away ‘exclusive prizes.’ This is supposed to be a professional account covering a league. What if a major piece of news happens, like a star player breaking his leg and getting hurt?

And here’s another really irritating thing about this private nonsense: there are two weeks left in the season, and baseball is in the midst of an intense pennant race….You’d think there would be more attention focused on the games on the field as opposed to giving away prizes for no reason.

Seven games are scheduled to begin during the private hours.

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has taken to Twitter and quoted from history following reports of his arrest early Saturday morning.

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
WC—
Adrian Peterson (@AdrianPeterson) July 08, 2012

The “WC” at the end of the tweet is an attribution to Winston Churchill, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister during World War II (and again for another stint in the 1950s). Peterson continued using his own words in a subsequent tweet:

Thank you for waiting for the facts. Truth will surface.—
Adrian Peterson (@AdrianPeterson) July 08, 2012

Peterson was reported to have been the instigator in an altercation with police officers at a Houston night club in the early hours of Saturday morning. Video of Peterson’s arrest was released by TMZ earlier today:

With a pending NBA investigation into his social media activity, Stoudemire has more to hang his head about. (Marc Serota, Getty Images)

Even the offseason can’t bring relief for the New York Kincks’ Amare Stoudemire. Two months removed from a first-round exit at the hands of the Miami Heat (and the lacerated hand that went with it), the power forward now finds himself in hot water after a heated exchange with a fan via Twitter.

A Deadspin report last week alleges Stoudemire sent a direct message to a fan via the social networking service, calling him a homophobic slur. The report received widespread negative reaction, and now the New York Post reports that the NBA is looking into the matter.

The authenticity of the direct message Stoudemire supposedly sent has yet to be verified, nor has the subsequent direct message he sent apologizing for his choice of words after the Deadspin story was released.

Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie was at Toronto’s Eaton Center Mall on Saturday afternoon when he heard gun shots ring out. Exiting the downtown shopping center, Lawrie took to Twitter, breaking news of a shooting that The Toronto Star now reports has injured two.

Pretty sure someone just let off a round bullets in eaton center mall .. Wow just sprinted out of the mall … Through traffic …—
Brett Lawrie (@blawrie13) June 02, 2012

People sprinting up the stairs right from where we just were … Wow wow wow—
Brett Lawrie (@blawrie13) June 02, 2012

This is crazy. … I hope everyone is ok … http://t.co/Dk1EWg4J—
Brett Lawrie (@blawrie13) June 02, 2012

This is serious .. Oh my god http://t.co/J5KaU9qj—
Brett Lawrie (@blawrie13) June 02, 2012

Lawrie, a native Canadian, is being credited throughout the twittersphere with breaking news of the shooting. The Eaton Center Mall is known as the largest mall in downtown Toronto. It lies just over one mile from the Rogers Center, where the Blue Jays play their home games.

Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said in a blog post that those who tweeted racial epithets toward forward Joel Ward after his game winning goal last night over the Boston Bruins should be “identified and pay a huge price for their beliefs.”

“Shame on these folks who decided to take to their keyboards and show their ignorance and their racism and hate,” Leonsis wrote.

“What these people have said and done is unforgivable. I hope they are now publicly identified and pay a huge price for their beliefs. There should be zero tolerance for this kind of hate mongering. Their messages should now stay glued into the algorithms to place a forever warning and a mark upon these people and their actions. They shouldn’t be able to escape their keystrokes.”

Several news outlets publicized the racist tweets shared by hundreds of Boston Bruins fans last night after Ward, an African American, scored the series clinching goal in overtime of Game 7. With the score the Capitals will advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In 73 games this season Ward scored six goals and tallied 12 assists for 18 points.

University of Memphis men’s head coach Josh Pastner accidently committed a secondary violation via Twitter last night, according to the Commercial Appeal.

Pastner accidently tweeted “Tony parker” at 10:43 last night from the team’s official account. The tweet was quickly deleted. The head coach later clarified that he had intended to type the name into Twitter’s search bar to see what people were saying about the potential recruit.

Tony Parker is a 2012 center prospect that Memphis has been heavily recruiting. NCAA coaches are prohibited from publically discussing unsigned recruits. As a result, Pastner self-reported his unintentional gaff.

“We’re a couple men down and I’m very methodical in my hiring. Plus, you’re in a recruiting period and we’re making sure that we’re finishing up strong academically. So I was probably doing too many things at once,” Pastner said Wednesday.

Future hall of famer and NFL legend Brett Favre has joined Twitter.

Hello friends, family, and fans. This is my official account I finally found the time to join twitter.

—
Brett Favre (@BrettFavre4) March 02, 2012

“Father, Husband, Retired NFL quarterback,” reads his account’s description.

Favre officially retired in 2010, after a two-year stint with the Minnesota Vikings. Over the course of his career he was selected to 11 Pro Bowls, named the league’s Most Valuable Player three times, named the NFC Player of the Year five times, and won one Super Bowl Championship.

Favre holds the NFL records for most career passing touchdowns, passing yards,  and regular seasons wins by a starting quarterback

Twitter began rolling out enhanced profile pages for some professional sports teams today.

Twitter developed enhanced profile pages for select brands in early December , however starting today they plan to roll out such pages to some professional sports teams. Updated profile pages can be seen on the  Nationals’ Twitter page, as well as the Detroit Tigers’ page.

These pages allow teams to better display information as well as featured tweets directly on their Twitter page. Previously, brands, news organizations, and regular users all had identical Twitter pages.