Thursday, October 25, 2012

College Football Coach Bans Players From Twitter

http://mashable.com/2012/10/25/mike-leach-twitter-ban/

Washington State football coach Mike Leach has banned his Cougars from tweeting. And not only that, he’s soliciting enforcement help from fans and media.

“Twitter’s now banned around here, so don’t expect anything on Twitter,” he told the Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review. “Twitter’s banned and quite frankly, if after today you see anything on Twitter from our team — and I don’t care if it says, ‘I love life’ — I would like to see it, because I will suspend them.”

He offered few details on the decision, telling the local paper, “Because I decided to, that’s what prompted that.” Athletic director Bill Moos, however, said that a series of inappropriate tweets by players had portrayed the program in an unflattering light, adding that the problem isn’t one specific to just football players.

“I’ve got kids myself, and they have Twitters and Facebooks and all that,” he told the Spokesman-Review. “And a lot of that stuff that comes across there, it would not be approved by the Parent Teacher Association.”

Leach isn’t the only college football coach to ban Twitter. In July, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher told his players Twitter was off limits for the rest of the year.

But Oregon coach Chip Kelly said on Wednesday that he thinks college coaches who ban Twitter may be missing the metaphorical forest for the proverbial trees.

“If they can’t be responsible in social media, then we recruited the wrong kids,” Kelly told the Oregonian. “I think it’s very prominent this day in age … and we try to educate our kids like we educate them in everything they do. But if you can’t trust a kid on Twitter … can you trust them on third down?”

No comments: