NFL: Arizona Cardinals to get cellphone breaks during team meetings

Arizona Cardinal players celebrate.
Arizona Cardinal players celebrate. Photo credit: Reuters

They've yet to play for him, but the Arizona Cardinals probably are ready to vote Kliff Kingsbury the coach of the year.

Speaking at the NFL league meetings in Phoenix, Kingsbury said during team meetings players will be given timeout to check their phones.

Kinsgbury, 39, said he did the same thing when coaching at Texas Tech and anticipates giving his players a phone break every 20 to 30 minutes.

"They're itching to get to those things," he said.

He said he saw his college players grow impatient and lose attention in the meetings.

Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury.
Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury. Photo credit: Reuters

"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.

The coach said it's just the way it is working with this generation of athletes. The average age of the players on the Cardinals’ roster at the start of the season was 26.5, which was the 25th-oldest team in the league.

"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 said. "We want to make sure that when we have them, they’re focused, and they’re locked in, and we’re maximising their time.

"So if we’ve got to split it up or have shorter meetings, that’s what we do.".

Reuters