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NFL players love social media. So do many other people. It’s a part of life you almost can’t ignore, even if it gets some players into trouble. ESPN took advantage of this by asking beat writers to name the top social media star for the team they’re covering. Jenna Laine, who started covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for ESPN this week, chose second-year left tackle Donovan Smith.
Smith doesn't have nearly the Twitter followings of Jameis Winston (245,000) or Gerald McCoy (67,300), but there's never a dull moment with the second-year starting left tackle. He Periscopes team paintball outings, Snapchats his grandmother dancing to Plies while cooking breakfast and tweets post-practice dance sessions in the locker room
JoeBucsFan disagreed, and named Austin Seferian-Jenkins the biggest star on the team. That's an amusing sentiment, but Seferian-Jenkins just tweets a lot — and doesn’t do a particularly amusing job of it. Certainly, threatening fans isn’t fun. I could probably make a good argument for Gerald McCoy who, like Smith, is prolific and fun, both on Twitter and on Snapchat. Jameis Winston has a massive following, but doesn’t really post a whole lot.
I’m gonna agree with Jenna Laine, though, and say Donovan Smith wins this one. He’s prolific on his Twitter account, and to a lesser extent, his Instagram. It’s how we know that he plays card games with Nelson Agholor and Jameis Winston, for instance.
Tonk, Music, Food, with my fellas @sanch_lite @nelsonagholor @Jaboowins pic.twitter.com/lFuuVf0N9k
— Donovan Smith (@DSmith_76) May 28, 2016
But Smith really shines on Snapchat, where he's known as dmmoney76. It’s hard to describe what he posts, because it seems like he just chronicles his entire day, every day. Sometimes, there’s some cool inside-the-Bucs type stuff on there, either from the locker room, or at photo shoots for Sunday Night Football.
And in contrast to Austin Seferian-Jenkins, he keeps it clean. Of course, he won’t get nearly the amount of harassment the Bucs tight end does, so it’s a little easier to just keep it positive — but he manages to do just that.
So if you want to follow just one Bucs player on whichever social media platform you prefer, make it Donovan Smith.