Mike Leach has long been a favorite coach of mine but this year was a tough one for him. First of all he banned Twitter after one of his players called him out for being late to a team meeting on it and then it is alleged that he confined a player to a small, dark spaces after he was diagnosed with a concussion. After Texas Tech University heard about it, he was fired with cause.
The school handed a termination letter to Leach’s attorney, Ted Liggett, just minutes before the two sides were to appear in a Lubbock, Texas, courtroom for a hearing on the coach’s suspension.
Liggett said the letter said Leach was “terminated with cause effective immediately.”
In February, Leach and the school agreed to a five-year, $12.7 million contract. According to terms of the deal, Leach was due a $800,000 bonus on Dec. 31 if he were still the head coach at Texas Tech.
Leach was suspended by the university on Monday after receiver Adam James alleged the coach twice confined him to small, dark spaces while the practiced.
James is the son of former NFL player and ESPN analyst Craig James.
Texas Tech plays Michigan State on Saturday in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
Tech is the second Big 12 school to launch an internal investigation into a coach’s treatment of his players.
On Nov. 16, Kansas investigated Mark Mangino, who got a big raise after he was national coach of the year and went 12-1 in 2007. Some players said he was insensitive, though others defended him.
You don’t often see school’s go after high profile coaches like this. Look at how long the University of Indiana put up with Bobby Knight’s shenanigans. Hopefully this is a sign coaches will be held accountable for more than their win loss records, unless of course you are a basketball coach in the state of Kentucky.
I came of age as a football fan in the latter days of the Woody Hayes era at The Ohio State University, and I was actually watching the Gator Bowl against Clemson when Hayes punched an opposing player and got himself fired. I tend to believe that Hayes only got fired because a photographer caught him in mid-punch and the university was embarrassed by the publicity.
I’m grateful to live in the ESPN/sports-blogging era, when media coverage is more complete and more intrusive, where there is in principle more oversight and people ask more questions about sports; I’m even glad to hear that Congress has scheduled hearings on brain injuries in the NFL, even though I suspect it’s just another photo opportunity for Congressmen rather than a serious attempt to fix a serious problem.
Unfortunately a lot of what I’m finding out about sports, the business of sports, the lifestyles of athletes, the relationship between professional sports and gambling, organized crime, etc. is taking the fun out of watching sports, and I’m beginning to suspect that I can’t be an ethical sports fan. I suspect that by watching sports, talking about sports, writing about sports, etc. I’m enabling and contributing to systematic abuses, rather than enjoying a form of wholesome entertainment provided mostly by upright citizens and only rarely bad actors.
I have my doubts that Mike Leach’s “chew em up and spit em out” behavior here is exceptional in its quality; it just sound bad. And in a year when money is tight it may very well be an excuse for an athletic director to cut costs.
… from that photo it looks like Leach could fit right in in Oakland? right colour choices ( black ), right attitude ( dark ), even close to a Ryan hairstyle ( well, closer than Cable’s crew cut ). Might even help the Raiders.
i think he should have signed that paper so he could keep his job but he was so stubborn.