December 30, 2009 · 4:25 PM

Perverse thought of the afternoon

How does the same school that hired Bobby Knight after he was caught choking one of his players (and subsequently lying about it) suddenly find religion over Mike Leach?

24 Comments

Filed under Mike Leach. Yar!

24 responses to “Perverse thought of the afternoon”

  2. Chuck
    December 30, 2009 at 4:34 PM

    I am going to guess they have about $800,000 reasons. 😉 Seriously, The Me=yer fiasco was a reason to thank God for CMR and this is just one more. I cannot defend Leach, really, but the school reaction, and in particular media reaction is way out of proportion. ESPN especially should just shut its big fat collective trap on any commentary, just report the facts and admit they have a conflict of interest in making any commentary, But nooooo…….Cowherd for one was ridiculous this afternoon.

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  3. ASS
    December 30, 2009 at 4:35 PM

    Because it involves Craig James’s son.

    Yeah, I know Craig James isn’t exactly a BFD, but he and his friends could still raise a stink out of this and drag it out if they really want.

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  4. 69Dawg
    December 30, 2009 at 4:36 PM

    $800,000 + $400,000 for 4 years has a way of making the unrighteous righteous. It’s all about the money. If CML’s TT Raiders were playing for the BCS Championship this would have not happened. If Adam James and his famous father were not like every other family now who thinks their little darling should get what his little heart desires even if he can’t play ball then this doesn’t happen.

    The real troubling part is the role of the WWL in backing their boy in this. Mark May was “Off with his Head” early on this at least Lou felt like he should shield CML a little but in the end the ducks lined up in a nice little row. Where were the tough questions of James, heck he works for them they should get an interview.

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  5. rbubp
    December 30, 2009 at 4:41 PM

    Speculation on the worldwide leader is that Leach would not do a lot of the gladhanding that is expected with boosters and such, and that he was viewed generally as a prima donna pain the arse.

    But it does seem ironic that they though Knight was ok.

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  6. Munson's Call
    December 30, 2009 at 5:00 PM

    I thought it was being reported that Leach would still get the $800,000 he was to earn tomorrow?

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    • Chuck
      December 30, 2009 at 5:16 PM

      Too early to tell, imo. They are ‘in negotiations’, and without actually knowing the terms of the contract, it’s hard to know who has the better legal position. And regardless, to avoid the publicity and expense, some settlement is likely no matter who has the upper hand. I do doubt if they can fire him just to avoid a payment due to him; the issue is going to revolve around whether the firing was for “cause”. Buckle up, because if they don’t settle this we’ll be hearing about it for months, maybe years.

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  7. Marque
    December 30, 2009 at 5:09 PM

    To me, this is yet another great example of why announcers shouldn’t be allowed to call their alma maters’ games, or their kids’ games. Not to pass judgment on whether Adam James is right or wrong, but imagine if the James family had decided to wait until the offseason to act on Adam’s complaint. He would have called the game, furious at the coach for his actions toward his son and intending to take actions that would get him fired weeks later. That would be a total disservice to the viewing public. Even if Craig was able to stay professional, viewers want an unbiased observer in the broadcast booth for a nationwide broadcast. His call of the game would have been parsed endlessly once the facts came out, which would have made both sides mad and would have embarrassed ESPN and James.

    ESPN has never had a problem putting Herbstreit in the booth for Ohio State games (he’s calling the Rose Bowl, in fact), and yet they don’t let him predict the score of any game in which he’s doing color analysis. Wha? Apparently the WWL thinks Herbie would appear more likely to call a biased game based on his pre-game prediction than on his four years of playing for the scarlet and gray. That makes no sense to me.

    For four years, it seemed like Phil Sims called every game his son played at Texas. I never felt like he was biased in favor of UT, but we were regaled endlessly with stories of his son’s childhood and high school career. That’s cute, and you can even say it’s interesting, but is it really what we want from our broadcasters?

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  8. Chuck Sanders
    December 30, 2009 at 5:11 PM

    You’d have to be an idiot to believe Leach was fired only because of the situation with Craig James’ son. This was simply a prime opportunity, espcially given the latest problems with Mangino and Leavitt, to finally get rid of the Coach that became the bane of their existence.

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  9. Scorpio Jones, III
    December 30, 2009 at 5:22 PM

    +10 on Mark Richt.

    If you do a little Web research you quickly discover most, if not all, of the “allegations” against Leach are rife with misrepresentations and just plain BS.

    Based on reading the comments on the firing story in the Lubbock paper, I would say the TT administration is in for a long year.

    Considering Craig James career at SMU, I guess he figures what he thinks is more important than the normal parent since he would certainly understand how to circumvent any rule that stood in his way.

    And Senator, you are spot on about Bobby Knight, who had an unfortunate incident at a restaurant salad bar with this same AD which concluded with everybody running down the street outside. Knight was reprimanded but not fired.

    It is also said in Texas Craig James has serious political asperations….wonder if he includes Lubbock in his plans?

    The whole thing reeks. Love to see the team boycott the bowl game.

    on second thought,

    +15 for CMR

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  10. rbubp
    December 30, 2009 at 5:29 PM

    ESPN has an ombudsman. I encourage everyone who is appalled by their behavior to fire off an email to him (it’s online).

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    • Dog in Fla
      December 30, 2009 at 5:58 PM

      And if you happen to be one of those few remaining who are appalled about anything anymore and are going to bother to omsbud the ESPN omsbudperson, remember to tell them to put Lou in a dark, heated electrical closet in Bristol because it’s cold outside and Lou may wander away from headquarters onto the road and either freeze or get hit by a car, or both. Mark May will probably agree to stand guard even without getting time and a half just to keep from having to see Lou and wear a spitguard.

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  11. Section Z alum
    December 30, 2009 at 5:36 PM

    allow me this wankerness: texas tech had no liability for a choke that happened at illinois. and if they did, damages for said choke would be wee.

    but i imagine a litigious, bitter papa in texas might bring a load of experts (legit or not) in a case to argue a host of more expensive damages in a post-concussion/false imprisonment/mental anguish tort festival. and if he did this to more than a few players 800 mil could look tiny to an appropriate tort weasel.

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  12. Dog in Fla
    December 30, 2009 at 5:42 PM

    Religion was easy to find even when not consistent because (a) Bobby got his street cred in the volatile old fashioned way, he earned it somewhere else other than in Lubbock, so they scared sh!tless of him unlike they were of Leach, and (b) in their annual performance reviews with Bobby, they may have learned the same four things about themselves from him that Isiah Thomas learned a couple of decades earlier…

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  13. Hogbody Spradlin
    December 30, 2009 at 6:14 PM

    Slightly Educated Speculation: Leach’s contract says they don’t have to pay the buyout if he gets fired for cause. Once he threw down the gauntlet they had to fire him. If they let things dillly dally and he got to coach the bowl game by court injuction, Leach’s lawyers would next argue there was no cause because he coached after the incident and everything was fine. Or to see the converse, the longer they let Leach stay around, the more they’re perceived as waiving the cause argument by inaction.

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  14. Hogbody Spradlin
    December 30, 2009 at 6:16 PM

    P.S. Leach should have had Les Miles’s agent. His buyout is peanuts by comparison.

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  16. Mayor of Dawgtown
    December 30, 2009 at 10:04 PM

    There is another matter to be considered. The WWL keeps airing negative information about Leach and they have a clear conflict of interest. One of their sportscasters is the father of the complaining player. The WWL is letting him poison the minds of everyone watching and Holtz and May as well as others) are piling on at every opportunity. Now, I wasn’t there–I don’t know what happened. The one thing I do know is that THEY weren’t there either. Without getting hyper technical they can get away with this kind of stuff because Leach is a public figure and the WWL and its talking heads are protected as long as they do not act with “actual malice” in their reporting. The first thing that needs to be done is for Leach’s lawyer to send a cease and desist letter to the WWL and ABC putting them on actual notice of their misstatements. That will lay the predicate for a suit for defamation and libel/slander. If they have been put on notice, that goes a long way to getting past the “actual malice” requirement. The letter can be introduced into evidence at trial to prove the WWL was on notice. This is a tactic commonly used by the top defamation lawyers in the US.

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