Along with counterintelligence agents and UFO conspiracy theorists, football coaches rank among the most paranoid people on the planet. They shred game plans, sweep their offices for bugs, look for spies lurking behind trees and the wheel of the team bus, close practices and refuse to talk about injuries. They are especially wary of mainstream media, viewing its representatives as shape-shifting chuckleheads out to subvert all that is good in their universe. The blogosphere is another toxic stew of uninformed opinion that football coaches would be elated to do without.
Much as they abhor it, coaches cannot control free speech in the general population, but they can act as the thought police when it comes to their own programs.
The latest leak in their fiercely guarded world is Twitter, simultaneously a fascinating and inane information tool that enables users to share whatever inspires their muse, provided their remarks are 140 characters or less.
Washington States Mike Leach is the most recent coach to go gulag and ban his players from using a personal Twitter account, doing so Tuesday. Leachs Cougars are also bumbling along at 2-5 and have just about eliminated themselves from bowl eligibility, which may or may not have something to do with his sudden personal war on social media.
Leach would not explain exactly why he banned his players from using Twitter, other than to say, I decided. But he did elaborate on his decision: Quite frankly,” Leach said, if after today you see anything on Twitter from our team, and I dont care if it says I love life, I would like to see it because I will suspend them.
Leach isnt the first college coaching to root out Twitter, nor will he be the last. Boise States Chris Petersen officially goes down in social media annals as the first to do it (2011). Petersen has since been joined by the likes of Turner Gill, Steve Spurrier and now Leach.
We wouldnt be surprised if Washingtons Steve Sarkisian, growing more paranoid with each passing season (hes reduced media access to practice and recently banned all injury talk), is next.
South Carolinas Spurrier recently explained to radio talker Dan Patrick why he disallows Twitter.
There’s no reason for them (players) to tweet anything out there. I don’t see how it can do any good for anybody. We had a couple of guys put some nasty stuff on Twitter in the summer. So we just said you don’t need to do that anymore. Let your girlfriend or pal down the road do all your tweeting, or whatever it is.”
Whatever it is? Spurrier is so 1966, isnt he?
WSU athletic director Bill Moos said he agrees with Leachs decision to trash Twitter.
I would endorse what Mike Leach has done, Moos said. Weve got some areas that we continue to clean up and this is apparently one as well. Ive got kids myself and they have Twitter and Facebook and all of that. And there is a lot of stuff that comes across there. It would not be approved by the Parent Teacher Association.
Some tweets do not portray the image of what I want our athletes to portray, Moos added, so weve got to learn that and adhere to it and keep our focus on the task at hand, and thats getting things done academically and building this program.
We assume Leach is on board with that sentiment. But its ignorant and unfair. Im not a big fan of Twitter mainly because of the vast amount of inanity it pumps into cyberspace — but it can also be a useful tool. Every student, including every student-athlete, should have the right to individually market his or her own personality as long as its responsible and doesnt unfairly embarrass the school.
Leach would be well within his authority to reprimand Twitter abusers, but to pre-emptively ban the entire team from using social media is Stalinesque.
Coaches such as Leach see no upside in Twitter, and thats understandable given their historic bent for top secrecy. But Leach should consider the possibility that his players will see a significant downside without it, and that maybe future Cougars recruits wont like Leachs anti-Twitter policy at all.
If Leach is going to issue his own absurd fatwa against Twitter, he should at least set an example and close his own Twitter account, which currently has nearly 40,000 followers.
7 Comments
The twitter ban is only the latest harsh move by Leach. I wonder if it will work, this dictatorial Texas-style ‘I’m the big boss-man you listen up’ approach. I mean, this is the Pac-12, the left coast, land of free spirits (well, except for eastern Washington). It will be interesting to see how all this pans out over the next few years, especially the recruiting, as Steve mentions. The drama surrounding the Cougs is great fun, i have to say.
With regard to your comment about “dictatorial Texas-style ‘I’m the big boss-man you listen up’ approach,” Leach is from Northern California and went to law school in Malibu.
How is disciplining your team harsh. The team needs discipline and accoriding to Leach part of the decision entailed the acts of some guys being irresponsible with Twitter. If you have couple of guys being irresponsible with Twitter especially if any of it involved vulgar language toward women than Mike Lecah better ban twitter if I am a Cougar alum/booster. Mike Leach is bringing much needed discipline to that program. If a coach can’t discipline his players than what is the point of having football or colege athletics as a whole. I applaud Mike Lecah for doing what it is right instead of coddling what are young adults and not kids. College athletics needs more Mike Leach types.
I think banning them from Twitter is a bit much but the message is very clear: think before you talk. I imagine eventually the ban will be lifted but if Coach Leach and the school warned the players time and again to mind their P’s and Q’s and they ignored that request then I get why the decision was made.
Even though they’re college students the reality is, as a Division 1 player you are in the public spotlight.
Tough situation. And I guess I am so 1966 too, albeit born that year, not a Heisman Trophy winner that year, in that I also think Twitter is overwhelmingly more often a source of inane dribble than anything else.
Here, though, Leach is obviously responding to something. And as I see, at times, players on Twitter as closely akin to players doing interviews or promoting themselves in a public way in some other manner, I am not sure a coach is totally out of bounds if the coach bans players from “unauthorized” interviews or public promotions, etc. while the individual is clearly a player and thus reflecting on the program. I really would like to know what brought this about by Leach. Still, a complete ban under all circumstances is still probably pushing the envelope except in the most egregious situations.
No problem with me regarding Leach’s edict. Don’t like it? Transfer. Besides, at 2-5 with little hope for improvement this season, this cadre of players doesn’t have anything to talk about (unless wins over EWU and UNLV are somehow a green light to smack talk on Twitter).
The inmates are learning that they don’t run the asylum in Pullman anymore.
One would think that the job of a reporter would be to get the facts before injecting their own opinion. I mean, isn’t that journalism 101? They pulled twitter because some of the players weren’t conducting themselves as they should, and, something coach Leach requires of his players, he pulled it. Unlike this ridiculous article, and some responders think. But don’t worry there Rudman, both sports radio stations in the city did your job for you.