First it was Mark Mangino. Then Mike Leach. And finally Jim Leavitt.

What do they all have in common? They are — were — all college football coaches who have been fired in the past month for using various forms of discipline deemed too severe by their respective universities.

That isn’t all they have in common, however. Mangino, Leach and Leavitt were three of the most lauded coaches in the nation the past few seasons having all resurrected previously decrepit football programs at Kansas, Texas Tech and South Florida, respectively.

I have been a sports fan my entire life and can say unequivocally that, after racking my brain, I cannot come up with a similar firing in any sport from the past.

Sure, there was Bob Knight getting fired from Indiana for hitting players — among other transgressions — but those actions were on video tape, and sometimes on national television. As was Ohio State’s coach, Woody Hayes, punching Clemson’s Charlie Bauman in the jaw.

What happened with Mangino, Leach and Leavitt happened behind closed doors (pun intended, Mr. Leach).

What I’m getting at here is that the world has changed. Actions that were formerly O.K. are no longer acceptable today. I know that not everything that is longstanding is necessarily a good thing, but in this case the change signals something deeper permeating through American society. Simply put, people are getting soft.

There are an abundance of factors that likely contribute to banning of good-ol’ fashioned discipline.

Media technology is obviously one factor. Things that previously did not garner national attention can be heard by anyone and everyone on Twitter five minutes after they happen, or communicated via Facebook for the entire world to see. Or, in the Leach case, a cell phone camera was all that was needed to make Mike Leach’s treatment of a concussed Adam James a national story.

Another factor is the growing fear of liability. Universities are strapped for cash, and while football brings in millions of dollars, the fear of getting sued hangs over the head of every university president and athletic director.

That said, Mark Mangino, the 2007 National Coach of the Year, a coach who doubled his school’s bowl wins during his tenure and led them to their first BCS bowl win, was fired for his alleged verbal abuse of players.

He wasn’t accused of hitting anyone (although grabbing was mentioned), so basically he was fired for being a jerk. Somewhere, Bear Bryant is rolling over in his grave.

I think what administrators must be forgetting is that this is football. It is a violent game that teaches players to literally hit their opponent, and it requires massive amounts of adrenaline to be successful.

Coaches spend hundreds of hours molding these young men’s bodies, teaching them to be aggressive, to want to inflict pain on opponents. Somewhere in that tangled web of testosterone and shoulder pads, there is going to be some yelling, and every once in a while, someone is going to get grabbed — or even hit. So be it.

The nature of the game teaches players to be obedient, but in a world where young people are allowed more and more freedom at increasingly younger ages, obedience can be hard to come by.

So, when a player with a concussion shows up to practice with sunglasses on and complains about the light, a coach locking him in a dark place does not seem too illogical. Maybe the illogical part was doing it to the son of an ESPN broadcaster, as ESPN is right at the center of the media boom.

In no way is this column intended to promote or condone coaches’ abusing players — there have to be limits as to what is allowed and what isn’t — but I do believe that when a coach is charged with controlling and molding the lives of 100-plus college athletes, there has to be some leeway provided.

I don’t know where Mangino, Leach and Leavitt will land, but all three are brilliant football minds that deserve to be employed somewhere. Unfortunately, I think it will be a while until any of them has a job again.

Daniel Bohm thinks the abuse he allegedly “doesn’t condone” is part of football. Tell him you’d like to lock him in a small, dark closet at bohmd “at” stanford.edu.