NFL is all atwitter

From the NFL's reaction to Twitter, you'd think it was another strain of swine flu.

The social networking Web site apparently scares the league's control-freak coaches so much, they're even attempting to ban it among fans.

According to the Associated Press, the Miami Dolphins prohibit fans and media at training-camp practices from tweeting, blogging or texting.

At least six other teams have also imposed such restrictions on reporters, even though the workouts are open to the public.

Not everyone shares the secrecy frenzy, but that might be because they don't know what the communications industry offers.

"I don't really have a Twitter policy," Denver coach Josh McDaniels told the Associated Press. "I don't know what it means; I don't know what it is. I don't know My Face, Spacebook, Facebook stuff. I don't know what that is either."

McDaniels was kidding. The Broncos, along with the Dolphins, the New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions, prohibit reporting from the practice field.

That's fine. What teams allow at their field is their business and they also have the right to close practices.

But the Broncos opened their practices to fans, then banned cell phones at workouts to prohibit fans from tweeting or texting.

Teams have varying policies on whether players can tweet, but the players had better beware that what they say can hurt them.

The San Diego Chargers allow players to tweet; they fined cornerback Antonio Cromartie $2,500 for using Twitter to complain about training camp chow.

AFL outta here. The Soul will never get to defend their Arena Football League title. The AFL is done, this time for good.

The league had already suspended play for the 2009 season. It sent a terse, one-paragraph statement to its teams late Tuesday, announcing it had suspended operations.

The statement said the AFL's board had been "unable to reach any consensus on restructuring the league over the past eight months." The owners could not agree on long-term structural improvements that would keep the league profitable.

Soul coach Bret Munsey accepted a buyout from the organization and took a job with the upstart United Football League. Munsey told the Associated Press he met with owner John Bon Jovi in January, and the rocker told the coach he thought the league would find a way to improve financially.

Munsey wears his ArenaBowl championship ring as a reminder of just how fun the AFL was for him.

"I'm very proud of that," he said. "It's something that doesn't happen too often."

And it probably won't happen again.

Finally. And now for the day's humor item.

Authorities in Belleville, Ill., say 49-year-old Dennis Cretton was cited for drunken driving after he drove up to a store to buy beer on his riding lawn mower.

Witnesses said Cretton had been drunkenly weaving in and out of traffic on the yellow mower.

When deputies tried to stop him, authorities said Cretton drove the mower into his home's front yard, his 12-pack of Milwaukee's Best tumbling onto the ground.

That's not the punch line - he was riding on the mower because his driver's license had been suspended after a drunken-driving conviction.