Book Exerpt: Mike Leach "Swing Your Sword"

[Wolf]

The following excerpt from my forthcoming book "Swing Your Sword" details what really was going on behind the scenes with Texas Tech and shows through the emails below just how orchestrated an effort this was by the group of folks I came up against. The excerpt begins at the end of December 2009. That month, as we began practices for the Alamo Bowl, Adam James was diagnosed with a concussion. Craig James had called Texas Tech's chairman of the board of regents with some allegations about how we treated his son and demanded I be fired. Tech had assigned an investigator, Charlotte Bingham, to look into what James claimed. She found out from her investigation that the story Craig James had told was inaccurate. But despite that fact, Tech suspended me for the bowl game and barred me from speaking to my team. I sought an injunction to coach my team in the game. On December 31, I also was going to qualify for an $800,000 bonus from Tech as part of the contract we had signed. But they fired me the day before that.

On the morning of December 30, at a pre-hearing meeting in the court's chambers, my attorney, Ted Liggett, informed Tech officials that we intended to proceed with the hearing. At that point, the Tech representatives handed my counsel a letter of termination effective December 30, 2009. Tech then released a "Statement from Texas Tech on Termination of Football Coach Mike Leach" in which Tech admitted that the termination was due to my filing the restraining order against Texas Tech.

I found it interesting that Tech publicly stated that the investigation was ongoing, despite the fact that the head of the investigation, Charlotte Bingham, had been out of the country on vacation since the morning of December 27. Yet, during her absence, they had both suspended and fired me. Also, on the day of my firing, former regent Windy Sitton confirmed that my termination had nothing to do with the Adam James situation, but resulted from the ill will generated by the 2009 contract negotiations.

She wrote an email to Jerry Turner that we obtained:

http://www.thepostgame.com/commentary/201107/swing-your-sword-mike-leach-book-excerpt

 

[GP]

He should have never had Adam James on his team, though I wonder if the kid was forced upon him by higher-ups. It sure seems that Craig and Adam and Tech higher-ups colluded to get him fired.

Having said that, I wonder why Leach didn't just ignore the kid altogether. From what I have read, Adam James was always trying to get a reaction out of Leach by standing out from the crowd...in wrong, immature ways. Why not just let the kid be a child and ignore him?

Why didn't Leach cut him from the team? Once again, maybe he was not permitted to do such a thing.

Everything points to Craig James being THE influential figure in this saga. It seems he was displeased that his son was going to leave Tech as having been nothing more than a bench-warming goof-off, and he was bound and determined to do whatever it took to do something about it.

1. As a FORMER Tech football fan, I hope Craig and Adam enjoy what they've done.

2. I hope the Tech admins are pleased that they screwed themselves for a no-talent Adam James when they could have remained attractive landing spots for future recruits who would have played with a pretty good HC in Mike Leach. They saved themselves $800,000 but probably lost themselves 10-times that amount in the long-term.

3. I hope Tubby flops like a wet noodle, which I think he's already well on his way to doing just that. He does nothing but take decent programs and ruin them, all the while shaking hands and giving "Aw, shucks!" speeches.

This should make ANY parent think twice about sending their student to Tech's business or ethics program.

In conclusion, Texas Tech has proven to value friends in high places above providing their students, alumni, and fans in all places with a quality program led by a proven college HC.

 

[Wolf]

New Leach book lands Bruce Feldman on suspension, and ESPN in media crosshairs

When Bruce Feldman signed on to write a book with Mike Leach in 2009, he probably knew it was a coup — Feldman had produced a pair of successful college football books already, and Leach had more than proven himself as one of the most intriguing characters in the sport even before proving himself as the most successful coach in Texas Tech history. But he couldn't have known just how fateful this particular project would eventually prove, on both sides of the coin.

Initially, it was lucky: Leach's bizarre, high-profile ouster from Tech that winter and subsequent court battle against his former employers guaranteed interest beyond the coach's cult of oddball admirers. Thursday, however, Feldman's luck appeared to turn when he was reportedly suspended indefinitely from his day job as a reporter for ESPN, barring him from writing, tweeting, appearing on television or radio or otherwise comporting himself under the network banner.

The network hasn't issued an official statement, but the radio silence from Feldman's usually active Twitter feed in the face of an overwhelming response from his colleagues (the ones who don't work at ESPN, anyway) tells the tale. So does the timing: The decision to put Feldman on ice comes just days after the Leach book, "Swing Your Sword," hit the shelves, and multiple excerpts began appearing on the web, including on Yahoo! Sports' online magazine, ThePostGame — every single one of them quoting Leach's scathing rebuke to ESPN for favoring the narrative pushed by its employee, Craig James.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...-Bruce-Feldman-on-suspension?urn=ncaaf-wp3731

 

[Ckw]

This is AWESOME! Just decided to look at the wiki page for Craig James and found this gem:

James was a part of the SMU teams that were found to have committed numerous NCAA violations, including receiving large sums of money from school boosters, which led to the enforcement of a "death penalty" (which shares a name with the punishment often given to people who commit multiple homicides in Texas) upon the school by the NCAA,[3] although James himself was never accused of any wrongdoing except for the murder of five prostitutes.

I love Wikipedia!