When Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach was fired over how he handled a player, the issue of what kind of discipline is OK and what is not was put under a microscope.
As long as there has been organized football, coaches have used running stadium steps, up-downs and sprints as forms of punishment for players who, in some way, have let down the team. Few would argue that a little extra running is excessive.
But coaches sometime get creative with their discipline and punishment. Leach is accused of locking a player who had suffered a concussion in a dark storage shed. He was subsequently fired. School administrators said his actions were over the line.
But where is the line? Here's a couple of opinions:
Travis Barr, former Central Florida player
"Coaching this era has taken a new turn. Not only do you have to coach hundreds of young men, but you have to coach hundreds of different personalities. Some players take yelling as motivation, and some players take it offensively.
"Going through my career of football the normal punishments were up-downs, running, sprints, etc., and this is accepted in the football society. If a player can't handle running as a punishment, then they shouldn't be involved with the game. With technology the way it is today, stories can take off worldwide, and coaches have to be careful not to cross the fine line because any verbal or physical abuse of a player could be taken the wrong way and end up costing a coach his job and perhaps a lawsuit.
"Football teaches young men how to be responsible for their actions and that there are consequences if you don't do your job correctly. Injuries are different. If you're injured in college, you report to a trainer who then clears you to play. The biggest difference between high school and college football is that college football is a business, and the coaches and players should treat it like that. Let the players play, coaches coach, and trainers help out with injuries and there won't be a problem. My football coaches have inspired me throughout my life and there is a mutual respect that we have always had with each other."
Rocky Hidalgo, Walton High School football coach
"At Walton, punishment is reserved for individuals who violate team rules - not for injuries. The most important thing is to make sure that emotion does not play a role in my decision-making. I try to separate my emotional self from my professional.
For major issues, I'll ask the player and his parents to meet with me the following day - after we all have had a night's sleep to digest what has happened. Punishment can be physical in the form of running. It can include extra [locker room clean-up duty] or it could be a loss of playing time. In the end, the coach needs to remain the adult in the situation.
"It is understandable that many people want to use punishment to the severest letter of the law as a deterrent to inappropriate behavior - especially when it comes to student-athletes. Often the result is that a young man [or woman] is being removed from one of the most positive role models in his life, and in many instances, the only true source of discipline that he receives.
I am not an advocate of dismissing players from the team, except as a last resort. I think that our program, its coaches and my players are, as a whole, a positive influence in a young man's life, and that he is better off spending 150 minutes with us every day after school than hanging out is some basement playing video games."
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