As major leaguers Trea Turner [url=http://www.cardinalscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-mason-cole-jersey]Cheap Mason Cole Jersey[/url] , Sean Newcomb and Josh Hader face up to racist and homophobic tweets they sent as teenagers, publicist Lauren Walsh recalls how she dealt with a football player who had offensive Facebook posts years before he prepared for the NFL draft.

She went through his whole social media history, taking down any posts that even raised an eyebrow.

Scrubbing tweets, Instagram posts and other comments, captions and status updates has grown into a top priority for LW Branding, Walsh's company that has helped 40 NFL athletes with image control in the past 3 1/2 years.

"Any client that we take on, that's generally the first step we do in the process," Walsh said. "This can take someone down in an instant. All it takes is one tweet. Now, he's going to be known for this. This is what people are talking about."

Turner and Newcomb are the latest high-profile athlete s burned by reckless posts from years past. The 25-year-old Newcomb nearly threw a no-hitter for the Braves against the Dodgers on Sunday 鈥?a career defining moment that took a turn when he called reporters back into the clubhouse to apologize for offensive tweets sent in 2011 and 2012, when he was 18.

Homophobic and racially insensitive tweets by Turner from 2011 and 2012 surfaced Sunday night. The 25-year-old Turner, a shortstop for the Washington Nationals, apologized in a statement released by the team.

"I believe people who know me understand those regrettable actions do not reflect my values or who I am," Turner said. "But I understand the hurtful nature of such language and am sorry to have brought any negative light to the Nationals organization, myself or the game I love."

Hader, who pitches for the Milwaukee Brewers, is still in apology mode after tweets from his past surfaced during the All-Star Game this month. He was given a standing ovation in his first game back in Milwaukee, and then booed when the Brewers made their first road trip of the second half of the season in San Francisco.

The trend touches many young athletes, with millions of posts from thousands of players who have been online since they were kids.

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"This stuff happens all the time and it happens when they get their shining moment," Walsh said. "When all of us were 17, we weren't thinking about where we were going to be in our lives seven years down the road."

But athletes should start thinking about the bigger picture, as damage from slip-ups can be critical to coaches and executives, Walsh said.

The mistakes by Turner, Hader and Newcomb will be discussed by athletic departments, professional teams, agents and handlers looking to protect themselves and their players. As higher-ups grow more aware of the damage social media mishaps can cause, vetting could become more rigid as a key part of evaluating a multimillion-dollar investment.

"In light of recent events, that's definitely something our staff will discuss to potentially eliminate the chance of a negative situation that puts a student-athlete in a bad light," said Creighton spokesman Rob Anderson, who said he doesn't know of any staffer going through a player's entire social media history.

Varsity Monitor keeps up with social media and offers education programs for 15 Division I schools, including North Carolina, Texas and Florida. Chief executive Joe Purvis said business is at an all-time high since 2010, with sales doubling in the past year.

It's not just athletes who should be wary of their past mistakes, Purvis said.

"Sports recruiters and normal employment recruiters are now looking at social media profiles as well as resumes as a standard of that person's character," he said. "If your social profiles have negative posts [url=http://www.authenticsindianapoliscolts.com/cheap-tyquan-lewis-jersey]Tyquan Lewis Jersey Elite[/url] , they will assume you are negative."

In the sports world, college might actually be too late to make changes. Social media can factor into whether an athlete is even offered a scholarship.

"We've stopped recruiting someone based on what kind of person he is after coaches had chances to assess everything in their life, including social media," said Georgia Southern spokesman Bryan Johnston.

Most schools designate a member of each team's coaching staff to monitor the social media channels of athletes. But the sheer volume of several hundred athletes per school makes it nearly impossible to keep up with everything.

Many schools have presentations early in the school year to educate students about the importance of being smart about social media. North Carolina brings in Derrick Mayes, a former NFL player and co-founder of 5.0 Communications, for "scared straight" seminars to athletes.

"When the reputation of your university, of your program is judged by what a teenager is doing on social media, the more that you can do to try to minimize those surprises, the better for everybody," North Carolina spokesman Steve Kirschner said.

Walsh suggests athletes and average Joes alike scrub their accounts once a year like a spring cleaning, leaving nothing to chance. And to use social media in a positive way.

"Be authentic," she said. "Define your brand and values. And then, you put out your content."

Even better to make smart decisions to begin with so there's no situation to fix, said Purdue spokesman Tom Schott.

"Once you put it out there, regardless of what you think you've deleted, it's probably going to be out there in some form or fashion," he said.

Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: CliffBruntAP The Washington Capitals don’t need a history lesson. Neither do the Winnipeg Jets for that matter.

The Capitals are well aware of their penchant for letting opportunity after opportunity slip away, frequently at the hands of Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And just in case Alex Ovechkin and his teammates ever forget about their playoff missteps [url=http://www.dolphinsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-josh-sitton-jersey]Dolphins Josh Sitton Jersey[/url] , they need only step in front of a camera or a microphone, where the same questions are posed year after year.

There’s only one way to hop off the hamster wheel: close out the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins this week – preferably at the end of Game 6 Monday night (7 p.m., NBCSN) in Pittsburgh – to earn the franchise’s first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 20 years.

”I don’t know if I could tell you exactly what it would mean,” Washington forward T.J. Oshie said.

”None of us have ever been there. We’re just looking to get the job done and maybe after we can talk about the feelings. But right now we still got a lot of work to do.”

Work that in the past has proven to be too much. Four previous times during the Ovechkin Era – including in 2009 and 2017 against Pittsburgh – the Capitals have won three games in the second round of the playoffs. It’s that fourth one that’s proven elusive.

No pressure or anything. All Washington has to do to produce a cathartic breakthrough is hand the Penguins their first series loss in 37 months.

Pittsburgh has never lost an elimination game under head coach Mike Sullivan, capturing a pair of Game 7s – including a 2-0 shutout in Washington in the second round – during its run to a second straight Cup last spring and rallying from a 3-2 deficit against Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference finals two years ago.

”They know what it takes to win,” Sullivan said. ”They’re not afraid of challenges and they embrace these types of situations.”

To become the first team in 35 years to earn three consecutive titles, the Penguins don’t really have a choice.

They were the better team for long stretches in Game 5 only to have the Capitals surge past them in the third period for a 6-3 win – the second time in three games Pittsburgh lost in regulation when leading after two, something it didn’t do at all in the regular season.

No matter. Recovering quickly and moving forward has kind of been their thing under Sullivan. The Penguins are 17-5 following a playoff loss with Sullivan on the bench.

Pushing that number to 18-5 would send the series back to Washington and force the Capitals try to explain – again – how this time will be different.

”We knew it was going to be a tight series,” Crosby said. ”We need to make sure we leave it all out there, give ourselves a chance to get back (to Washington).”

At least the Capitals put themselves in position for playoff heartbreak. That’s hardly the case with the Jets, who until a month ago had won exactly zero postseason games in their 18 years of existence and now find themselves one victory away from the Western Conference finals.

Winnipeg has never been this far. Ever. The Jets put themselves in position when they stunned Nashville by scoring four goals in the second period against Vezina Trophy finalist Pekka Rinne during a 6-2 romp in ”Smashville” in Game 5, sending them home for Game 6 (9:30 p.m., NBCSN) with a chance to wrap up the series.

Not that the Jets want to talk about it.

”That’s noise. It’s kind of a distraction,” Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler said.

”What we’re focused on is what’s given us success all year long, and that’s just finding a way to win one hockey game. If we’re able to do that, then when it’s all said and done you’re reflecting on the season and you’ll think about what you were able to accomplish and the magnitude of the situation. But we can’t make it bigger than a game.”

The Predators, unlike the Jets, have been here before. They faced elimination in the first round against Anaheim in 2016 but came back to advance [url=http://www.ravenscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-robert-griffin-iii-jersey]Authentic Robert Griffin III Jersey[/url] , triumphing in the crucible of Game 7 for the first time in franchise history in the process.

”It’s pretty simple, we win we keep playing,” Nashville forward Filip Forsberg said. ”If we don’t, we don’t play anymore. Obviously that desperation level is going to be a determining factor for sure.”

It’s a feeling long familiar in Washington. The Capitals received a dose of good news on Sunday when coach Barry Trotz said center Nicklas Backstrom will travel with the team after leaving in the third period of Game 5 with an upper-body injury.

Whoever is on the ice will be forced to shoulder the weight of playoff failures, one Trotz is confident his team is finally ready to shrug off for good.

”I can tell you there’s not a player, a coach, a trainer, ownership, (general manager) who is not trying to do everything they can to win this series,” Trotz said. ”Trust me. We’re trying as hard as we can and at the end of the day that’s all we can promise.”

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AP Sports Writer Teresa Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, and AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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