Thursday 21 Mar saw sports headlines
punching out the story of how Crete Monee athletic director Gene Cahan has been
ousted from his position and reassigned for the next school year (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-21/sports/ct-spt-0321-prep-crete-monee-ad-20130320_1_jerry-verde-laquon-treadwell-crete-monee) . According to the article Mr.
Cahan posted a picture of highly touted Mississippi bound Laquon Treadwell.
When asked by Treadwell to remove the picture, it was, but apparently that
wasn’t to the satisfaction of some school board members. Here’s what’s wrong
with this whole picture.
Google Laquon Treadwell and you will
see how many articles are dedicated to this talented young man. You’ll see he
has over 13,000 followers on Twitter and he caters to them all. The article
doesn’t seem to cover the back story of all of this, I’m sure they had to
“struggle” to fill out a 5 inch space in the paper. That little space doesn’t
allow one to put together a complete package of anything. The media writes with the thought that most
will check out the back story and see this whole thing goes a little deeper
than the blaring headlines of a reassigned athletic director.
Treadwell posted a picture of
himself on the social site Instagram, with two young ladies during his visit to
Ole Miss. The young ladies were on either side of him and kissing his cheeks.
Nothing’s wrong there, right? Then there’s the picture of Treadwell with his
hand on a stack of $100 dollar bills, hmm, questionable. Even though Treadwell
deleted the questionable photo, it had already spread across the internet. The
questions started about whether or not Treadwell received money to attend the
university from the boosters/alumni. So
why didn’t it make more noise here? Good question considering this all took
place in January. So it looks like things were kept pretty much under wraps
until Cahan put the picture up by his office. Was it wrong? Maybe not so much
as it being unethical or a bad judgment call.
Questions are abounding as to how
Ole Miss can attract such talent and people aren’t being shy about it.
Treadwell has already been on the defense about the picture saying it was a
joke. He admitted that it was indeed his hand on the money in the picture. He
admitted to being…well….a kid. Let’s face it, he’s a kid that is tech savvy and
knows how to use the social media to his advantage. There is nothing wrong with
that. Maybe, he didn’t realize how powerful social media can be. Mr. Cahan
doesn’t seem to realize that either.
Someone, should have told Treadwell
what he was about to get himself into. Let’s break this down a little. The
picture itself shouldn’t have been taken, why? Mississippi ranks last in most
everything in this country except its racism. Times have changed, but let’s
keep it real, not much has changed in that state. This picture played right
into the stereotypes that are thrust upon young, successful black men. “Come to
our school and we’ll give you white women”. Now, for those who think naively
that this young man hasn’t gotten a few calls from the Mississippi branch of
the KKK, wake up and rub the sleep out of your eyes. “Come to our school, we’ll
give you money.” “Come here and you’ll be treated like a rock star”. I’m sure I could go on, but I’m sure I’ve
stepped on a few toes already. Bottom line is this young man will be attending
school in one of the most racist states in the country and there’s that picture
floating around.
Teenagers aren’t capable of
navigating the recruiting circus alone. Toss in social media and it becomes
almost impossible to navigate alone. Parents, coaches and athletic directors
need to navigate the waters with these young student athletes. All the
attention, the parties and everything else being thrown at these kids will make
your head spin. This isn’t a time for coaches or athletic directors to bask in
the glory of what this young person has done. This is when the real part of
being a coach should kick in. The
process with my own son was stressful and he didn’t get the media attention
Treadwell has gotten. You can’t say to a young person be a kid at home, be a
kid at school, now go off to navigate these waters alone and be mature about
it. That certainly won’t happen.
A few short years ago, 2009; I
witnessed a coach swear at an athlete and tell him he wouldn’t be where he is
if it wasn’t for him. The athlete was a bit cocky and basically said the team
will lose without him. Now imagine this…I’m on no less than 12 social sites,
what if all of that was available just a few short years ago. I could have
captured that conversation and made it go viral. That could have possibly ended
that coach’s career. I’ve seen a coach take creepy photos of a girls team, even
after several complaints, the coach didn’t lose his job. Imagine had all of
these sites been available; another coach without a job. You see what I’m
getting at?
When Cahan put the picture up at the
school, it wasn’t that he was wrong. It was that he made a bad judgment call;
he knew the picture had already caused issues for Treadwell. Cahan was probably
trying to show pride in the student athlete, but that quick lapse of judgment
cost him. To put that squarely on Cahan
was also a judgment call within the school board.
In a time where young people are
broadcasting their lives on a minute by minute basis, schools need to consider
a social media manager (raises hand). I doubt even the people running the
sports departments realize just how many social sites these young people get
on. Remember the story of the basket ball player that was arrested in 2009? He
was supposed to go to University of Northern Iowa, take a look. I did look at
that time and was blown away by the comments. That young man was called the
ugliest of racist names by students and alums of the university. That’s as far
as that went. Now imagine if they had had the access to all the social sites
available now. You can understand how big that could have gotten, right?
Having a social media manager would
keep the lack of judgment by both athlete and coaches down to a minimum. Young
people take stupid pictures all the time, coaches need to tell their athletes
to be careful of what they make public.
A rap artist never hurt his career by flashing money in a photo, but a
student athlete needs to understand doing everything you see someone else do
can hurt yourself and possibly others around you. Social media managers would
be able to navigate the sometimes egoistical minds of athletes suddenly thrust
into the limelight. In this case, it was a bad judgment call by Cahan to put
the picture up, but it was a bigger lack of judgment by Treadwell to take that
type of picture in the first place. To that end, any high school needing a
social media manager, look me up ~ Just My Two Cents
