Sam Pittman opens up about why he deleted his Twitter account

Last week, Sam Pittman deleted his Twitter account. Today, he gave a very thoughtful and passionate explanation for why he did it.

Following Arkansas’ 38-31 loss to BYU in Week 3, head coach [autotag]Sam Pittman[/autotag] deleted his Twitter (sorry, still not calling it X) account.

The move was highly publicized and met with a lot of criticism from the fans, former players and everyone in-between. In his press conference last Monday, Pittman briefly touched on some of the negative social media comments that players and coaches were subjected to following the loss to BYU. Later in the week, Pittman’s Twitter was deactivated and he hadn’t spoken out about that until today.

In Monday’s press conference, he was asked about why he deleted his account and gave a very thoughtful three-minute response.

“I do not believe that you can hide behind a phone and address people as personally as people do. I don’t think it’s fair, I don’t think it’s right,” Pittman said.

“I’m a counselor last week for my punter, for some (offensive) linemen. To me, that’s not what it is, for a bunch of people that’s hiding to talk about you. Everybody knows I’m fat, everybody knows I’ve got a big chest. To do that (make fun of that), who does that make feel better?”

“People say, ‘Well you make a lot of money.’ That ain’t got nothing to do with people bashing you personally,” continued Pittman. “You can talk about my coaching all you want. But attacking me, guys on the team, that’s not right. I’ll never feel like it’s right.”

Pittman brings up some very great points on why social media can be as harmful as it is helpful in today’s world. Right or wrong, it’s fair to criticize a coach on decisions he made during a game. However, it’s unacceptable to attack them personally and that’s exactly what Pittman is saying here.

While Pittman isn’t always the most articulate with his explanations, he was very well-spoken and passionate with his answer here.

Whether you agree with his reasoning or not – which you should – you’ll be hard-pressed finding another head coach in the country be as open about deleting a social media account as Pittman was today.

You can watch video of Pittman’s full response below.