Mike Leach bans Washington State players from Twitter
Mike Leach has now joined the club of coaches banning their players from Twitter.
Leach instituted the ban after two student reporters for the Murrow News Service asked the athletic department for comment regarding a couple Twitter messages that appeared on players' pages.
According to athletic director Bill Moos, the tweets in question had nothing to do with the program, but they were vulgar in nature.
"They aren't bashing coaches or the program or any of that, but it's not what we want to be perceived as how our program is represented," Moos told Christian Caple of The Spokesman-Review.
Moos added that many player tweets "would not be approved by the Parent Teacher Association."
That's when Leach had enough and decided to ban the social media outlet for the foreseeable future.
"Twitter's now banned around here, so don't expect anything on Twitter," Leach said, according to The 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."
Leach isn't the first one to take a hard line against social media. Many coaches have banned their players from Twitter because of dumb comments that often get retweeted multiple times and reflect poorly on the program.
A week ago, Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray had to apologize for calling out "bandwagon fans" on Twitter following his team's 41-31 loss to Mississippi State.
The Seattle Times took an interesting look at Leach's ban and asked a couple lawyers if the ban was constitutional? Of course, both lawyers said any ban violates a player's right to free speech, but Leach, being a lawyer himself, might just come back with playing football at Washington State is not a right, it's a privilege and send those kids packing.
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