T.J. Lang might play left tackle (LT) for the Green Bay Packers, but it’s a RT that’s landing him in social media heaven — and likely the NFL’s version of the doghouse. Close to 60,000 RTs, that is.

In what will likely become the watershed moment for bringing back the currently-locked out NFL referees, the Packers were defeated on Monday night in Seattle on one of the more controversial touchdown calls in NFL history.

Replays suggest that Packers’ defensive back M.D. Jennings came down with a hail Mary interception to preserve the win for Green Bay as time expired. The replacement officials thought otherwise and ceded the win to the home team Seahawks.

But this post isn’t a diatribe against the refs. It’s a eye-opener for social media.

Most notably, the reach of Twitter. After the game, Lang tweeted a profane tirade on the social media website — basically, facetiously thanking the NFL for allowing inferior referees to decide games.

In 34 minutes, Lang was retweeted 40,362 times. Read that number again. More than 10,000 of those retweets came in a 10 minute span.

Since I began writing this post, Lang has been retweeted more than 7,000 times. He’s averaging 930 retweets per minute.

His followers have jumped by the thousands as well – starting around 47,000, it’s now up to close to 54,000 new fans.

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STRANDED AT SECOND BASE

“Culling the thoughts that occur when you’re standing around waiting for something to happen”

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Adrian Gonzalez (facing camera) passes the torch to ex-teammate Jeff Kouzmanoff as the Padres' active leading career homerun leader.Robert Benson-US PRESSWIRE

That enormous sigh you hear coming out of San Diego isn’t wheezing from Padre Nation, upon hearing of the pending trade of slugger Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox.

It’s coming from Nate Colbert — the Padres’ all-time home run leader.

Gonzalez pulled within two dingers of tying Colbert’s franchise-best 163 career homer mark at season’s end.

Just how futile is San Diego when it comes to the long ball? The next closest active home run leader is Kevin Kouzmanoff and his 59 long balls in a Padre uniform.

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Portfolio.com has ranked the nation’s top 200 ‘brainiest’ cities based on criteria such as income and education.

Green Bay is the lowest ranked city that houses a franchise in any of the Big Four leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL). That makes sense. Without fail, every December we see images of some Lambeau lardo wearing nothing but paint on his chest and a block of cheddar on his head.

Green Bay Packer cheesehead fans sure are loyal, but that doesn't necessarily translate to smarts. Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE

Tucson

(84th), it should be noted, is ‘brainier’ than Phoenix (100). Akron, Ohio, is even smarter than Phoenix.

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Favre, who never likes to simply throw a pass away, will heretofore be known as the “Hoarder.”

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Perhaps Stevie Johnson — the Buffalo Bills’ receiver infamously dropped a game-winning pass and blamed his maker via Twitter — needs to ask God why a grown man goes by the name “Stevie.”

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“Culling the thoughts that occur when you’re standing around waiting for something to happen”

How do you suppose former University of Arizona Wildcat Richard Jefferson and his teammates feel about the recent photo of Mexican drug cartel kingpin Sergio Villarreal Barragan being arrested on Sept. 10 proudly wearing a San Antonio Spurs T-shirt?

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The NHL preseason is underway and if you’re anything like me you…well, you also probably hadn’t noticed.

It seems like just yesterday the Chicago Blackhawks were hoisting the Stanley Cup, 10 days before the Los Angeles Lakers did an Irish jig on the Boston Celtics’ NBA Finals dreams.

Well, the boys of winter are back — despite the fact that Los Angeles hit  a record high 113 degrees today.

Off-seasons appear to be shrinking in the big-dollar game of sports. How much of a hiatus do we actually get to ease out of our post-title hangovers?

On average? About 100 days.

SEASON FINALE     .     TRAINING CAMP BEGAN     .     DAYS

NHL     June 9     Sept. 17     100

NBA     June 17     Sept. 27     102

MLB     Nov. 4     Feb. 15     103

NFL     Feb. 7     July 23     166*

*Mini camp after 75 days

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David Aardsma recently picked up his 30 save of the season for the Seattle Mariners.

I’ll never forget my first encounter with the closer when he pitched for the Chicago White Sox in 2007.

Aardsma was in the Sox’ spring training office in Tucson and using a copy machine.

All I could think was “what the heck does a baseball player need to make copies of?”

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