Rich Rodriguez Bans TikTok from West Virginia Locker Room
Well, West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez just provided one of the most interesting headlines of the offseason with his decision to ban the popular social media app TikTok from the locker room.
TikTok has become a bit of a distraction in college and professional sports, with players like Livvy Dunne, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Russel Wilson, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and more regularly using the app.
“They’re going to be on it, so I’m not banning it from them,” Rodriguez said. “I’m just banning them from dancing on it. We try to have a hard edge and whatever, and you’re in your tights dancing on TikTok, that’s not quite the image of our program that I want.”
While the idea of banning TikTok may sound silly at face value, the idea of athletes cleaning up their social media and making sure to represent their university well is a concept that goes back to the implementation of social media.
“I banned dancing on TikTok, I guess I did that,” Rodriguez continued. “And I’m allowed to do that, I guess. I can have rules. Now, twenty years from now if they want to be sitting in their pajamas in their basement eating Cheetos and watching TikTok, whatever the hell, they can go at it. Smoking cannabis, whatever. I mean, knock yourself out.”
Rodriguez finished his statement by saying, “I hope our focus can be on winning football games. How about let’s win the football game and not worry about winning TikTok.”
This fall, you can see the Mountaineers on the football field, on your television, hear them on the radio, or just about anywhere other than dancing on TikTok.
