Kliff Kingsbury is bringing some of his college coaching style with him to the NFL, and Arizona Cardinals players who can’t live without Twitter and Instagram are going to like one of his policies.
Kingsbury told reporters at the NFL coaches breakfast on Tuesday that he will implement “cellphone breaks” for Cardinals players the same way he did at Texas Tech. The idea is to allow players to take breaks to use their phones every 20-30 minutes during meetings, otherwise Kingsbury believes they will just be distracted and “itching to get to those things.”
“You start to see kind of hands twitching and legs shaking, and you know they need to get that social media fix, so we’ll let them hop over there and then get back in the meeting and refocus,” Kingsbury said, per ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss.
Kingsbury feels that the breaks allow players to maximize their focus rather than drifting off. Some will argue that adults who are getting paid millions of dollars shouldn’t require “cellphone breaks,” but Kingsbury is willing to do whatever it takes to assure he has the full attention of every player in the meeting room.
“I think coming from the college ranks to obviously, those young men, it’s got to be quick hitters, 20 minutes at a time, give them a break and get them back in,” he added. “We want to make sure that when we have them, they’re focused, and they’re locked in, and we’re maximizing their time.”
In an era where we have seen athletes tweet during halftime of games, you can understand why Kingsbury is trying to find a way to offset cellphone addiction. Just don’t expect many coaches around the NFL to adopt the same policy.
