In his book Hard Truth, Dally M medal winner Todd Carney acknowledged he will always be remembered for his infamous "bubbler" picture that effectively ended his career in the NRL.
''Like John Hopoate is always remembered for sticking his finger up the arse of rival players, Trevor Chappell has had to live with the underarm delivery for decades and Mike Tyson is renowned for biting an opponent's ear, 'the bubbler' is what people associate with Todd Carney."
Now the former Roosters, Sharks and Raiders playmaker is trying to spin the embarrassing moment into gold.
Carney, who works as a concreter on the Gold Coast, has linked up with close friend Mitchell Micallef who developed the app SocialBase, which allows a club's social media manager to approve any post by a player before it's posted to social media, adding a layer of protection for clubs and sponsors.
The former five-eighth says he wants to help athletes across all codes learn from his mistakes, even though the "bubbler" image was not ever uploaded to social media by the former NRL star.
Carney was arguably at the peak of his career when he had his $3 million contract torn up after a drunken night out in 2014. He was out with friends when someone took a photo of him in the toilets at a Cronulla nightspot without his knowledge, with the image later going viral.
Speaking to Wide World of Sports alongside Micallef, Carney admitted the app wouldn't have saved him had it been around in 2014, yet there have been famous recent incidents where it would have been useful.
"No it wouldn't have saved me if the app was around back then. Somebody else took the photo and then someone else put it on social media and it spread like rapid fire," Carney said.
"But what it would stop would be instances like Israel Folau. In my situation it wouldn't have saved me but if it did pop up on my account it would have."
There have been several incidents where players have brought their codes into disrepute without posting content on their own account. The Penrith sex videos were disseminated by people other than Panthers players.
The complicated impact of social media stretches far beyond players posting something at 2am while drunk, yet Micallef believes the app, which should be ready to go in six weeks, is the first step in trying to add more protection to a club's reputation.
"You're never going to have a way of 100 percent solving the issue but we believe we've got something that can assist clubs and the codes by adding a layer of protection at least," he said.
"There isn't a 100 percent cure to it but this is the start."
The former player said he's had a positive response from clubs he's spoken to but whether the players will be on board with having their employers censor their social media posts is a separate issue. For clubs to pull it off, the RLPA may need to be part of conversations.
"They don't lose control of their social media either, the players have full control," said Micallef.
"It's just when they post it, a certain post at a certain time it will go to their manager to press accept. So they'll still have control of their own social media."
Carney said he wasn't sure if all players would accept it, admitting there might be some blowback, but claims it would be in the players' best interests despite obvious concerns about impinging on their freedom outside the workplace.
"It's not an infringement on your freedom – nobody means to do wrong, people make mistakes," Carney said.
"It's just to stop from mistakes from happening. But it's going to be up to the individual.
"I feel the way the game's going the rules they have so far I don't see how it would be an issue to players."
from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/todd-carney-spins-bubbler-incident-into-social-media-app/09e35f70-515d-4bf5-94d9-69f6f9f2f0bb
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