In Kansas, Turner Gill Becomes the Wizard of Oddby Clay Travis
Want to be out after 10 at night in the presence of a woman? Good luck, if you're a football player in Lawrence, Kan. Correction, make that a college football player in Lawrence; high school gridders have greater freedoms these days than anyone on the Jayhawks.
The "no women after 10 p.m." rule is one of first-year head coach Turner Gill's rules for the Kansas football team. The rule isn't just for public interaction, you also violate it if you're in the presence of a woman at her place or yours. While Gill has acknowledged that proving a violation is difficult, according to KUSports.com, "he (Gill) explained the penalty would be more severe if a KU player was involved with an incident and it was discovered that the player had broken the policy."
More severe?
What if the player isn't doing anything at all but hanging out with a member of the opposite sex? And 10 at night? Ten? Coaches are fond of saying nothing good happens after midnight -- which is completely wrong, by the way. Expanding that cliche to encompass nothing good happening before the nightly news is over? Most nursing home residents are living scandalous lifestyles compared to the antediluvian restrictions that Gill is foisting upon his players.
Is Gill aware coed dorms exist? What happens then? Do players have to show up every morning at five to run wind sprints as penance for having the temerity to live in the same building with unmarried women? Already, despite the opposite-sex prohibitions, Kansas has lost to North Dakota State in its home opener. Can you imagine how badly the Jayhawks might have lost to North Dakota State if players had been allowed to speak with women after 10?
I can, it might have been 9-3 instead of 6-3.
In order to pull off this road win and counteract the female prohibition at Kansas, North Dakota State's entire team must have pledged to be celibate for the rest of their lives. A small price to pay for a Saturday win.
Turner Gill's expansive directives aimed at controlling his players every waking moment are the latest examples of football coaches becoming more and more like totalitarian dictators each year. Freedom of communication grows for college students? Football coaches push back in the opposite direction, limiting those freedoms in a misguided attempt to tighten the reins of program discipline. Facebook? Some coaches are banning it. Twitter? Boise State's Chris Petersen began the banning rush in the offseason. Now, Kansas doesn't want its football players around women at night. What's next, players not allowed to have cell phones?
Too late.
Kansas players can't do that either, not in the 24 hours leading up to a game, anyway. That's because the
Kansas coaching staff confiscates the players' cell phones and won't return them until after the game. I'm not making this up. They actually take the phones. A parent or family member needing to reach your child in the event of emergency? You call the director of football operations.
linky