Don’t Have Rules You Would Not Enforce with Your Starting Quarterback

The other night watching the Fever vs. the Aces, I was reminded of some coaching wisdom that was shared with me. 

My jogging partner as a young coach was Kelly Kane, Galesburg’s football coach. Kelly is one of those leaders who had a clear vision of how he was going to build a program and a team. Quite simply, there were not many things that Coach Kane had not thought out. 

One day as we ran, I shared a problem that I was not sure how to handle. I had a player who I felt needed to be disciplined. 

After listening to me describe the behavior and several discipline options, Coach Kane responded. All he said was, “Don’t have rules you would not enforce with the starting quarterback.” 

He went onto explain one of the most important things with discipline is trying to be not just fair but trying to be consistent. If you are really tough one a reserve who breaks a rule, are you going to be willing to do the same with the star?

I thought this was great advice for me. Going forward as I made up rules and dished out consequences, I would ask if I was establishing something that I would be willing to enforce with the star of the team. 

I thought of this as watched A’ja Wilson go into the stands for a confrontation with a fan. By the definition and the rule of the NBA and WBNA, the first row is considered the stands. The rule then says that the player is to be ejected from that game and subject a suspension of 1 or more games. 

I would claim that the WNBA never went jogging with Kelly Kane. If you are not willing to enforce a rule with the MVP of the league, you are going to have a problem going forward. 

Next year, if a player is upset and goes into the stands, how can the WNBA eject her or suspend her? Is the WNBA going to selectively enforce the rule? Is just the MVP exempt, or maybe all the All-Stars?

The first part of Kelly Kane’s advice was, “Don’t have rules you would not enforce with your starting quarterback.”

The second part was, “If you decide to have a rule, make sure you are willing to enforce the rule when your starting quarterback violates it.”