Twitter Ban at the U

Randy Shannon has banned his players from using Twitter. He says the team needs to regain focus. Is this shocking? Most coaches are control freaks. They have meticulous practice plans that are planned out to the minute. At 3:00 PM you have group drills. At 3:15, you break into individual drills. At 3:30, you work on a passing skeleton. The whistle blows and the players are expected to move around the practice field as quickly as possible. No time is wasted. A friend of mine who played college football told me he couldn't stand to have his whole life planned out for him. His class schedule was selected for him and he was expected to be in study hall while not in practice or lifting weights in the gym. Everything was pre-packaged. For some, this is a small sacrifice to pay in order to play college football. After all, only a very small percentage of us who play high school football make it to the next level.

Which brings me to my point. If it is well understood by anyone who follows college football that the coach is usually akin to a dictator, why is the media making such a big deal out of the fact that Randy Shannon banned Twitter? (Take this Quiz: Who said it? NFL Coach or Dictator?) C'mon. The Miami Dolphins run their organization like the Pentagon. The New England Patriots don't even tell the media when their players are injured, or when they do, they only vaguely describe the injury. The year the Patriots almost went undefeated (Thank you David Tyree and Eli Manning), Tom Brady was listed as having a shoulder injury the entire season. The only thing Twitter does is give the players more control over how they are perceived by their fans and media. However, the social networking site can cause distractions.

All it takes is for one player to post an inappropriate picture (Former Miami Heat player Michael Beasley accidentally posting pictures of his weed) and all of a sudden you have a public relations disaster on your hands that could lead to an NCAA investigation, more media pressure, and a giant headache for the University of Miami Athletics Department. What is shocking to me is how Shannon has not banned other social networking sites such as Facebook. Facebook is just as dangerous if not more dangerous than twitter because of the fact people post photo albums of virtually every social event they partake in.

 You went to a party this weekend? Someone took a picture. Were you drinking a beer? You better believe there is a picture somewhere out there. I'll give you a perfect example. Just last year I was at Chili's in Coconut Grove when I realized sitting right behind me was Graig Cooper, a running back who plays for the Hurricanes. I try as much as possible to not be "that annoying fan" who is always asking for autographs and pictures, but I figured he was sitting right behind me and I was really the only one who had noticed he was there. I approached him and asked if it was ok if I took a picture with him. He seemed very shy to be honest, but he took the picture with me (of course he threw up the "U" sign with his hands). Now what would have happened if Graig Cooper was out with a bunch of his friends drinking beers (nothing illegal about that by the way) and I secretly took a bunch of pictures from the corner and later posted them on my Twitter or Facebook account? Would people have made an issue out of it? Maybe, maybe not. What if he was at a strip club? What if he was smoking weed? Players need to be very careful what they do in public. This has always been an issue for all athletes, but even more so in this generation of camera phones.

Twitter Ban at the U