I have spent nearly the past 40 years of my life interviewing athletes in team sports and I haven’t been around many teams with so many players skilled at the art of giving a good interview as this Kansas football squad.
As a rule, they don’t mail in their answers, seem comfortable fielding questions, have a friendly nature, look you right in the eye when talking, and generally represent themselves and their university well.
It makes sense, given where head coach David Beaty immediately went when asked at Media Day in Dallas a general question about what advice he has for young people.
“One of the things we put a lot of emphasis on is teaching our guys how to communicate because we are living in a communication-less society,” Beaty said. “You can date without talking. You can get a job without talking. You can do so much now without talking, but I still believe those who communicate are the ones who will rule the world. I still believe that that still has to happen.”
It’s a nice message, one that will benefit his players long after they have played their final football game.
“I believe that it’s what makes people different,” Beaty said. “It’s out of our nature to just go say hello to somebody who we don’t know, and we commonly do that to try to make them understand that this will make you someone of interest. So for us, we put a lot of emphasis on making them talk, making them communicate, because we think it’s a powerful tool in life.”
Bravo!
