The 7 best Philadelphia Eagles to follow on twitter

 

The NFL season kicked off this past Wednesday as the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants fell to NFC East rivals the Dallas Cowboys. While we at Hashtag wish there was a way both teams could lose (Go Eagles!), it’s still an exciting time of year for sports fans and more directly, for fans of twitter. The ubiquitous nature of twitter has allowed some of the league’s top players to have a direct connection to their fanbases, as well as a simple way to break their own news in the fastest manner possible. With that in mind, we decided to take a hometown look at some of the best Philadelphia Eagles to follow on twitter. In no particular order:
Justin Bieber / Jason Babin

  Jason Babin (@JasonBabin93)
Defensive end Jason Babin had a big 2011 for the Eagles, recording 18 sacks and earning a   spot in the Pro Bowl for the second consecutive year. Babin’s active on twitter with nearly 44,000 followers, and spends his time interacting with fans, retweeting Eagles-related tweets and even asking his followers for advice or tips on everything from good ATV spots to Ducks Unlimited locations (Is there anything twitter can’t do?). Lately he’s been tweeting Photoshops of Justin Bieber’s face superimposed on his body (left), so it’s clear he has a sense of humor—a crucial element of being good at twitter.
 

 

Desean Jackson (@DeseanJackson10)
Pet photos are an important pillar of a successful social media presence (Don’t laugh; have you seen how much traffic BuzzFeed gets just by posting slideshows of cute animals?) and Eagles receiver Desean Jackson posts plenty of Instagram photos of his adorable pup (below). Other than that, Jackson posts a lot of cryptic tweets that seem to be motivational in nature, the occasional product placement (Xbox is one of the latest) and a few retweets here and there. But, dogs! That’s the reason he’s closing in on 475,000 followers.

Desean Jackson's dog

Lesean McCoy (@CutonDime25)
The Eagles’ Super Bowl hopes sit largely on the legs of running back Lesean McCoy, and his twitter feed reflects that to a certain extent—the majority of his tweets are short messages about his job that display his passion and motivation for football. Just today he simply tweeted, “Ready for work ….” and much of his retweets are from teammates or other Eagles-related accounts. A true team player!

Casey Matthews (@CaseyMatthews50)
Casey Matthews hasn’t even broken the 1,000 tweet threshold, but has already amassed around 44,000 followers—impressive for a guy that when compared to some of his teammates, tweets with almost monk-like scarcity. Still, there’s some good stuff to be had here: Matthews retweets a lot from his older brother, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, as well as motivational messages from Eagles fans. Rest assured he’ll pick up twitter steam in his second season in the Eagles defensive backfield.

Michael Vick (@MikeVick)
Mike Vick’s ability to stay healthy has been a constant topic of discussion all summer (most agree that the Eagles will be great if he’s able to revert to his 2010 form for a full season). What’s not up for debate is Vick’s reach on twitter: With 1.5 million followers, Vick’s the most followed member of the Birds, with many of his recent tweets centered around the release of his new book Finally Free. He uses a ton of hashtags, too, which we’re obviously also a fan of.

Jeremy Maclin  (@jmac_18)
Wide receiver Jeremy Maclin boasts 105,000 followers on twitter, and he uses his platform to tweet about, well, football. College football, mostly. He also occasionally poses questions to his followers, such as this one about the value of fantasy football that generated a lot of discussion. Interesting stuff.

Jason Kelce (@Jkelce)
Eagles center Jason Kelce has over 16,000 followers on twitter (and follows nearly just as many accounts, so follow him and maybe he’ll follow you back) with tweets that sometimes border on the absurd but are always absurdly entertaining, especially when pertaining to his admittedly epic beard.