(Jake Shields: title-holder, smug expression-maker, Rancid fan.)

Before their Strikeforce title fight on CBS, Jake Shields and "Mayhem" Miller exchanged Twitter barbs that could accurately be described as good-natured ball-busting on both sides.  Then they fought, Shields won the Strikeforce middleweight strap via decision, and that was that.  Only recently the Twitter exchanges have gotten a little more personal and a lot less fun.  Like two drunk guys horsing around at a party, the play-wrestling has turned into torn collars and breathless invectives right in front of our eyes, and the rest of us can only stand around uncomfortably while trying to decide whether to try and broker a peace or just make up an excuse to leave.

Miller kicked things off by writing, "Jake, the worst damage you did was give me staph, zit covered leg humper," which prompted Shields to post the above picture with his belt collection.  Not one to let a situation cool down, Miller asked Shields if he "hugged" his way to those titles, which then made Shields retort with a remark about Miller’s arrest for assault, without mentioning that Miller was later acquitted of those charges.  In short, Shields and Miller probably aren’t going to be carpooling to future Strikeforce events together, so the real loser in all this is the environment. 

Thanks for nothing, Twitter.  You’ve ruined another friendship that might have been by making mass communication so easy that it’s hardly even worth thinking through the possible ramifications beforehand.  Something tells me they didn’t have this problem with the telegraph.