Michelle Beadle goes nuclear on Twitter troll

Female sportswriters and broadcasters have to deal with a lot of crap on Twitter. The comments that roll in every time they say anything are pretty gross, and things that trolls would never say to their faces.

Former ESPN columnist Molly Knight tweeted out an example of the abuse, which came in response to a seemingly innocuous tweet about the Florida State-Oregon game this week.

https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/549663614836015104

https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/549695160913645569

Pretty gross, right? Rape joke, slut comment, shockingly par for the course on Twitter.

And then Michelle Beadle, one of the favorite targets of trolls everywhere, got involved. Beadle’s had a combative relationship with Florida State fans for awhile, and engaged with fans in some low level name calling prior to Knight’s tweet.

2010-2014 Heat fans > #FSUTwitter

— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) December 29, 2014

Never sleep with pigs. You get dirty and the pigs enjoy it. #MyBad

— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) December 29, 2014

@molly_knight Florida, as a state, tends to be a bit behind.

— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) December 29, 2014

And then Beadle noticed a tweet from SBNation’s Adam Herman to Knight, pointing out that her troll appears to be a registered sex offender. Naturally, she called attention to it.

#FSUTwitter RT @AdamHerman_BSB: @molly_knight @bruce_arthur @d_cochran FYI this guy is a registered sex offender. http://t.co/vrLbcUv6Hq

— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) December 29, 2014

Then she dropped the hammer on the apparent sex offender.

Hey @d_cochran….less time worrying about boys playing football, and more time not being a molester. http://t.co/vrLbcUv6Hq #FSUTwitter

— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) December 29, 2014

The troll then deleted his account.

I have no idea if this troll actually is the sex offender in question, and if he’s not, Beadle is playing with fire. But considering he first changed his avatar, display name, and location before deleting his tweet…there’s probably some smoke to that fire.

Beadle smashed the big red button to respond to this troll, who wasn’t even going after her, and the results were astounding. This won’t stop the endless parade of trolls, but it’s a nice victory for sanity.