Tebow mania overwhelms Twitter
On Sunday night, Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow burned the defending AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers with an 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime to lift Denver to a stunning 29-23 victory. That wasn't the only bit of history made by the highly-touted rookie.
Twitter's miracle pass - Steeler fans would choose a quite different adjective - set a rate of 9,420 tweets-per-second for a sporting event, Twitter announced. The previous sports record, 7,196 tweets-per-second - took place at the end of the FIFA Women's World Cup last summer.
Matt McGee of the blog MarketingLand pointed out that the Twitter reaction to Tebow's touchdown throw also bested these other banner headlines:
- Osama bin Laden's death: 5,106 TPS
- Steve Jobs' resignation from Apple (7,064 TPS) and death (6,049 TPS)
- U.S. East Coast earthquake (August 23, 2011): 5,449 TPS
- 2011 MTV Video Music Awards (Beyonce pregnant): 8,868 TPS
- 2011 Super Bowl: 4,064 TPS