Sep

29

Texas Tech bans its players from Twitter

Filed Under Social Media 

Texas Tech has a Twitter account, but the football team’s head coach Mike Leach has banned its players from using the social networking website.

Leach said players don’t need Twitter or Facebook. He called them “stupid” distractions.

“I think that a guy who plays college football gets enough attention,” he said. It’s “a bunch of narcissists that want to sit and type stuff about themselves all the time. We’ll put mirrors in some of their lockers if that’s necessary but they don’t have to Twitter.”

Leach said players’ Facebook pages will be monitored. He joked about who would be watching.

“That’s a committee that’s very secret and the names of those people are in a vault deep in the bowels of our training center, which even the entrance to that is highly classified,” he said.

The blog Dr. Saturday has a video of coach Leach talking about technology if you want to see him talking about all of this. With Texas Tech sporting a 2-2 record, Leach does not want technology to be a distraction as the team attempts to get back on track.

Leach fired back at the disgruntled players Monday on the Big 12’s weekly coaches’ teleconference.

“Anyone who is a malcontent doesn’t stay around here long,” Leach said. “We’ve got a full group of players who are ready to take (his) place. And interestingly enough, he doesn’t have a Twitter page anymore.”

The sniping across Cyberspace is the last thing the Red Raiders needed after the disappointing losses to Texas and Houston — their first back-to-back losses since midway through the 2007 season.

A couple of incidents from two players led to the ban according to Mashable.

Under his former Twitter name, @kos39, Marlon Williams tweeted, “Wondering why I’m still in this meeting room when the head coach can’t even be on time to his on meeting.” …

Meanwhile, after a team loss, Brandon Carter, who was @BCSLAM on Twitter, openly expressed his malcontent saying, “This is not how I saw our season. I just cried like am idiot. I want us to be so good.my last year and I feel like I’m letting everyone down.”

While those comments are not the worst ones to be posted by an athlete, it’s still in the realm of things that should be avoided when tweeting whether you’re an athlete or not. Saying something negative about your boss or coach and how you feel your job/scholarship/team (that isn’t positive) is not a good idea whether you play for a professional sports team or you are a college student.

Comments

2 Responses to “Texas Tech bans its players from Twitter”

  1. Liz on September 29th, 2009 2:25 pm

    I still think banning Twitter is a bit drastic. If Leach thinks it is just talking about oneself, he has no idea how Twitter is used now by most people. Tweeting about a coach being late is stupid, but the coach banning Twitter for everyone after that is just as lame.

  2. Dina Haansley on September 30th, 2009 11:09 am

    Hey who says they can’t have a social life, but I understand he doesn’t want any distractions. If they are trying to Twitter during practice or games, then they don’t deserve to be on the field. In their free time nothing is wrong with it.

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