UT Austin Head Coach Mack Brown has dubbed Facebook “dangerous” after a Longhorn player was kicked off the team for using a racial slur against Barack Obama on the popular social networking site.
Buck Burnette, a Longhorns center from Wimberley, Texas, was booted from the team on Nov. 5 following his use of an election-night racial remark regarding the president-elect on Facebook. Brown told the team afterward that they need to be careful with sites such as My Space and Facebook.
“We have told them that we would rather they not have them, and we’ve told them that they need to obviously not put anything on there that their mom wouldn’t want to see,” Brown said in a Houston Chronicle article on Burnette’s expulsion.
“Gee Coach, we didn’t know that.”
Not answered in the article was whether Facebook precipitated the Longhorns’ drop from first place in national football polls after their Nov. 1 loss to Texas Tech. Interestingly enough, Tech head coach Mike Leach has a My Space page. When the Chronicle article was published it said Leach has “2,372 friends.” A check of his page today shows he has 2,543 friends. More interesting, though not totally out the realm of imagination, Leach has a law degree. I guess that is probably good degree to have these days for a football coach what with the sometimes lawlessness of some college and pro players.
All kidding aside, Brown has a point. College students who might still be a bit wet behind the ears do need to watch what they put online. But for folks who have to rely on PR to help build their fan and financial base, such as football coaches, such networkings make sense.
Our local higher ed school, Lamar University, is in the process of putting a football team back together and its new coach has a Facebook page. Ray Woodard, a former Denver Bronco who has coached at the high school, junior college and NFL Europe levels, faces a big challenge fielding a NCAA I-AA team which will likely compete in the Southland Conference in 2011. As of today, Ray had 115 friends on Facebook but I’m sure he will have plenty more over time.
I didn’t see Buck Burnette’s page on Facebook when I looked today. There was a page called “Identity Theft — Buck Burnette’s Middle Name.” One post noted that while Burnette has the right to freedom of speech, the UT football team has the right to say:
“Buck Burnette, you are a ignominy, and do not accurately represent the University of Texas, get the f**k off our team you petulant, obtuse, ignorant racist.” 🙂
Oh, in case you are wondering the ** in “f**k” are mine and not those of the person quoted from the Facebook page. But then, you get my drift.