You see, we’re in the business of selling you entertainment! We’re also in the business of selling you everything that goes along with entertainment, like sneakers, and jerseys, and sweatsuits, and mini-helmets, and commemorative plates, and cars, and alcohol... well, you get the idea. The funny thing about entertainment companies is that without fail, they want to grab the biggest slice of the pie they can, and the pie is biggest when it’s watered down and spread out and so generic that anyone can stomach a bite. It might not taste like much, but it sure is easy to keep choking it down the old gullet.
What teams don’t like is spice. Flavor. Something that makes people angry, gets folks riled up. They hate to see those messages that could possibly alienate a buyer, no matter how odious that buyer’s views may be. For example, if a professional athlete were to tweet the following—“Jeremy Hammond and Barrett Brown and Glenn Greenwald and Chelsea Manning and numerous other whistleblowers and reporters are being systematically harassed and incarcerated by a bloated and wasteful political system that’s only concerned with making more money for those that already have plenty of it, regardless of the long-term consequences to political stability”—why, that athlete would probably get a stern talking to from the PR department, and possibly the head coach as well.