In a move that would make Vince Lombardi spin in his grave, incoming Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said that he'd give his new team regular "cell phone breaks" to allow them to check in with loved ones and scour their preferred social media sites.
The AZ Republicnotes that, while it may be a shock to the senses of a hardened old-school NFL fan, it was a break that Kingsbury permitted back when he was coaching at Texas Tech. The theory behind the move was that it would bust up monotony and get players to focus more when the topic was football.
The outlet also hopped back in time to August 2016, which is the year and month that Kingsbury told ex-player and "Hawkcast" podcast host A.J. Hawk about a social media trick he utilized while heading up the amateur ranks.
As Kingsbury told Hawk, Texas Tech coaches would put together fake social media accounts, complete with photos of "cute girls," for the purpose of spying on players.
“We have fake accounts with cute girls that they add right now so we can see what’s going on, who’s tweeting what,” Kingsbury revealed. “Those are heavily monitored, for sure.”
Hawk also asked Kingsbury if he thought Tech players might be wise to what the coaches were doing, to which Kingsbury replied, “I think they do, but they can’t resist that. Friend requests from cute girls are an automatic follow.”
Kingsbury added that the practice also led to semi-lighthearted ball busting: "Once a year, we’ll capture the most absurd posts our team makes and we make a big presentation and have a lot of fun with it."
Kyler Murray and whoever else is on the Cardinals, beware.
