Bolts' Ellis on Twitter firestorm: 'I'm not a jerk'

In 140 characters or less, new Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Dan Ellis created quite a tweet storm.

On Monday evening, while Ellis sat surfing on his computer, he came across a Twitter message from NFL running back Reggie Bush commenting on a proposed 18 percent pay cut for NFL players as part of collective bargaining discussions between the league and the NFL players' association.

Ellis, who signed a two-year contract worth $3 million this summer, replied via his Twitter account, "try 24% NHL" in reference to the 24 percent pay cut all NHL players accepted after the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season. What Ellis believed was an innocent comment prompted numerous responses, most of them unpleasant and referring to the 30-year-old as greedy, selfish or insensitive.

And those were the nicer remarks.

"They got pretty nasty, a little bit personal, but you know what, I think when people, especially in this area, get to know me they are going to realize I'm not a jerk.," Ellis said Wednesday after an informal pre-camp workout at the Ice Sports Forum, his first time skating with many of his new teammates.

"But unfortunately some people took some pretty good jabs at me, most of the same old goalie comments. But I've been a goalie a long time, so if you want to call me a sieve, a pylon, I've heard them all. So, unless you have something original, save the 140 characters."

Ellis' Twitter account - username @33dellis - has more than 12,000 followers. More than 12 hours after his original post, Ellis found himself still in the crosshairs of critical fans, prompting him to send out a series of messages.

Among posts:

• "I understand $ is a sensitive topic but I was not boasting or undermining anyones lack of $"

• "If you r getting overly jazzed up about my meaningless tweets maybe unfollow or therapy is just what the Dr ordered?"

• "This has officially got way out of control. No harm or offense was ever intended in this twitter topic. Never again will I tweet on $"

• "I apologize to anyone that I may have offended. I drastically under estimated the power of twitter!"

• "Kind of scary how much trouble 140 characters can create! Wow!"

• "Sieve. Swiss cheese. U suck. Bench warmer. Peks a kisser. Etc heard em all folks. Sorry to break it to u. Name calling is so grade 3!"

On Wednesday night, he tweeted "Peace out twitter!" after writing he would no longer post "because in no way shape or form do I want this to disrupt my team."

Some of the reaction to Ellis' comments may have been spurred on by a popular hockey blog. In a Tuesday morning post, Yahoo Sports blogger Greg Wyshynski, aka Puck Daddy, went so far as to call the backlash against Ellis "a well-deserved kick in the teeth for a professional athlete seemingly incapable of understanding what an elitist jackass he comes across as being on social media."

Lyle Richardson, who runs another popular hockey website at www.SpectorsHockey.net, took a different approach.

Richardson wrote: "While fans like to slam them as 'greedy players,' pro athletes in general and pro hockey players like Ellis in particular have worked hard to get where they are. No one handed it to them and they sacrificed their childhood, teenage years and early twenties to get there.

"That being said however Ellis' comments - while obviously never intended to upset or offend fans - do give the impression of a pro athlete out of touch with "the real world". Most hockey fans are middle class, earning an average of $55,000/year, who will never in their lifetimes make as much as Ellis will make with the Lightning over the next two seasons. There's still a worldwide recession going on so most fans aren't going to be very sympathetic to Ellis when they're worried about possible wage cuts, tax increases, health benefits, job retention, paying bills and providing for their families."

Ellis never meant to offend anybody with his off-the-cuff comment, but said people shouldn't get so worked up over what he wrote.

"If you are going to allow a medium like Twitter to get your feathers ruffled so much, then maybe it's just something you shouldn't be reading." Ellis said. "I guess a lot of people have a lot invested in that Twitter, and it's too bad.

"You never want to bring negative exposure to anything and there was no harm meant to it, unfortunately some people were offended. But I just have to keep things a little more basic from here on out."