Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Twitter... The online social network that allows Web users to snipe at each other from miles away in 140 characters or less was the latest battleground for a professional athlete to make a fool out of himself.

Maybe we shouldn't say "battleground". We'll get to that in a moment.

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Bernard Berrian – who has caught just two passes for 37 yards through four weeks of the season – took umbrage with a Vikings fan and state legislator who noted his Twitter account the humor of Berrian tweeting that he "should get the ball a lot more."

Rep. John Kriesel of Cottage Grove then took hits from Berrian via the Twitter, with the football player saying Kriesel should come down and watch the game film with him. If not, Berrian invited Kriesel to "sit down n shut up!!"

Which brings us to the awkward part... Kriesel is a decorated war veteran who lost his legs when his convoy was bombed in Iraq.

Berrian has since apologized via voicemail and Kriesel kept the topic on football (and Berrian's poor playing) in his tweets afterward. Still, for the 1000th time, we'd like to advise athletes to be more careful with their tweets.

We would say that, but honestly, it's funnier when they don't.