Tech coach bans Twitter

So Mike Leach, the head football coach at Texas Tech, is prohibiting his players from using Twitter or Facebook after catching a little bit of heat over the past couple of weeks. While he is well within his rights at coach to lay down the rules, I find it more than a bit ironic that he is banning the flow of information at an institute of higher learning.

According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, linebacker Marlon Williams asked on his Twitter account why he was still in a meeting room when "the head coach can't even be on time." That tweet has been deleted and his page no longer exists.

Is his concern that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are taking up too much of the players' time or that unfiltered information is being released to the public? Is Leach worried that his players' aren't hitting the books or that he doesn't have editorial control over the information the kids are posting on these sites?

Leach said players' Facebook pages will be monitored. He does not want his players sharing information about the football team on them.

Well, Coach, I've got news for you. No matter how hard you try, you can't stop the free flow of information. The Soviet Union tried to and they failed. Governments in Eastern Europe tried to and they failed. China is fighting a rearguard action and they, too, will eventually fail.

It doesn't matter whether you build walls, string up barbed wire or jam satellite and phone signals -- the flow of information is an abstract being that cannot be stopped.