I dont even think this is unique to nfl locker rooms. Lets say you work at Nike in the marketing department and a guy you are vaguely acquainted with on linkedin who used to work in marketing at reebok before a layoff posts he is excited about his interview with nike (i am saying he posts because such a visit would not be in the news). If you comment on his post ‘hey man that would be great, good luck’ does that neccessarily mean you are the most dedicated employee and believe this guy will make Nike have a better year and is cleary preferable to filling the position by promoting from within. I doubt it. Maybe you are just being nice. Maybe you have no idea if the guy is good at his job but you liked having a beer at the convention and think he could replace the guy who forgets to set his lineup in your fantasy league. Maybe you are networking. Maybe you hope your boss sees the comment and sees you as being a team player for helping to recruit. Maybe you privately tell the boss this guy has a bad rep and maybe dont hire him but publicly you say ‘good luck man, hope you come aboard’ because you dont want to be seen by him, or your boss if he still wants to hire him, as interfering. Maybe you know he is struggling financially and needs imsurance for his sick kid. None of this makes you a bad employee, a lot of times you just havent worked closely with acquaintences applying to your employer so you cant say if they are good or bad but you recruit or encourage them for various personal and networking reasons other than surety of their greatness and your dedication to your department being #1. Linkedin/twitter work networking encouragements just arent all about company greatness first in any job.