Kliff Kingsbury is 39, just a few years younger than me, and likewise straddles the line between generations. He was born in 1979 so technically he's one of the youngest members of Generation X, but those just a year or two younger than him are classified as millennials. And pretty much every player he oversees as the head coach of the NFL's Cardinals is a millennial.
That generation grew up in a much different world than those older than them. So Kingsbury is trying something with the Cardinals that he did with even younger players at Texas Tech: he's giving them a "cellphone break" after about 20 or 30 minutes of team meetings to make sure they are focused during meetings.
"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 told reporters recently.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
