Update: Texas Tech fired Mike Leach on Wednesday. Leach was due a bonus of $800,000 if he was still coach on Thursday.
ESPN analyst Craig James talked for the first time Tuesday night about taking steps to protect his son, Adam, a receiver on the Texas Tech team.
"I'm a dad," he said. "Everybody knows me as an ESPN guy and a football guy, but I'm a dad. When my wife and I heard about it the first time, we had no idea how to respond. The second time it came to us, we really wanted to help protect Adam from further things that could go against him.
"This is not common sense, the tactics and the tools and the methods he was placed under following a doctor's diagnosis of a concussion."
James' complaint led to the indefinite suspension of Mike Leach on Monday, and the coach's attorney will argue Wednesday morning that his client should be reinstated before Saturday's Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, where the Red Raiders are preparing to play Michigan State.
Reaction to the complaint and suspension against Leach have been mixed. Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Sherrington wrote that "the facts of the latest circus at Texas Tech are this: Adam James was diagnosed with a concussion. His coach mocked the prescribed treatment.
"Other than that, you can believe all the scenarios and conspiracy theories you like, and it won't make any difference."
Mickey Peters, a Tech receiver under Leach from 2000-02, defended the coach. Peters suffered a concussion in 2002 against Texas A&M and went back into the game. After learning of the injury, Leach sat Peters and ordered him not to play the following week.
"For me that week, I wanted to play. I thought I could've played, but I didn’t play," Peters said. "Coach Leach eventually came up to me and said, 'Hey, that wasn’t a bright thing that you did. Your health is more important than anything you can do out here on a football field.' "
Leach supporters have taken to cyberspace to urge university officials to keep the coach. Team Leach, a Facebook page, had nearly 15,000 members at the time of this post. Supporters were also flooding message boards, which became battlegrounds for fans divided on Leach's future.
You figure Craig James would be more upset that his son wasn't getting paid as much as he was when he was at SMU.
Posted by: T-Bone | December 30, 2009 at 08:25 AM