Just about every week, you'll see a tweet like this go viral among Football Twitter.
Any recruits wondering if that advice really applied to them saw some real life examples pop up over the summer. Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader had his MLB All-Star Game debut ruined when racist tweets he sent as a teenager emerged while he was on the mound. “There’s no excuse for what was said, and, you know, I’m deeply sorry for what I’ve said and what’s been going on,” he said. “It doesn’t reflect any of my beliefs going on now.”
That wasn't the end of it, though. Atlanta Braves pitcher Sean Newcomb and Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner were also forced to apologize when bigoted tweets they sent as teenagers came back to haunt them as adults.
Fast forward to this week, when another "watch what you tweet" admonishment went viral.
That's Texas Wesleyan offensive coordinator Kyle Cox. A TCU graduate and Dallas native, Cox was a graduate assistant on Gary Patterson's staff before crossing Fort Worth to join the NAIA school's staff in 2017 as wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator. He was promoted to offensive coordinator ahead of this season.
However, after Cox's tweet went viral, someone dug into his own archives to find the exact types of tweets he told recruits not to send.
Fast forward to Wednesday, when this happened:
“You’ve just got to work through it,” Texas Wesleyan head coach Joe Prud’homme told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Just have to work through it.”
Cox's career has been harmed, perhaps permanently, by tweets he sent as a college student. Perhaps they don't reflect his views now. Perhaps he was joking. Either way, Cox is now living proof of what he himself told recruits not to do.