My first football coach in the seventh grade came up to me after I fumbled the football and got in my face and said, "Mr. Martin, Confucius says, "What profits the man who runs a touchdown and does not have the ball! Now run two laps around the football field ." If I needed to go to the bathroom during practice, I had to run two laps BEFORE I was permitted to go. I ran a lot. As a matter of fact running and other physical acts as common punishment for about anything (like running the bleachers). When I first started playing coaches cussed. That was the first thing to go. The next to go was the rubber hose that the coaches would hit us on the shoulder pads to get our attention. We just thought it was part of football.
Now, that is not to say that I always agreed with the coach. My junior year of high school I practiced with the starters all week when we were in pads as a starting running back. But every Thursday when the team worked out in shorts and no hitting, our senior running back was suddenly healed and started on Friday night. He always started until he wanted a rest! So much for hard work paying off. I was a good observer though and always knew the stories that were just below the surface. In this case it was that black running backs were always better in this coach's mind.
That brings me to Mike Leach. I tend to like people who go against the grain, because of strong internal bearings. Yes, I like Bobby Knight too! I knew when the story broke about Leach that this was going to be big. After all he was against a nationally know parent of one of his players who worked for ESPN, his university wanted him to cave, and we were hearing only one side of the story. The minute the news came out, all sportscasters were against Leach. He's a jerk. he endangered a young man and his Dad was only looking out for his son's safety. Leach locked the kid in a dark shed and made him stand like an animal for Pete's sake! Concussions are horrible injury's and in 2009 you don't treat kids like that!
So the school suspends Mike Leach, preventing him form coaching in a bowl (and earning a $800,000 bonus). Leach takes them to court and they fire him! Easy Call.
Mike Leach was interviewed today for the first time and says that Adam James was a lazy player who expected different treatment because of his famous dad. He stated the dad, Craig James, took up more time with the coaches and administration than all of the other parents combined. He also denied that the student athlete was mistreated and that the kid came to practice in sun glasses saying that the sun was giving him headaches. So, he put him in a dark Place. At this point it is "he said, they said".
Then he produces a letter from the team doctor saying that nothing that transpired endangered the boy and that the athlete was cleared to practice. Then a student trainer comes forward with a written statement that he was assigned to the kid and monitored him every 15 minutes and that he was not forced to stand and was never in a closet. He stated that the guy ate ice and slept on the floor!
So what happened? A ten year coach (who everyone in the universe knew was a different cat) who took his team to 10 straight bowls, helped his player graduate, and somehow made players want to go to school in Lubbock, Texas got fired.
By the way, he is only one of four D1 coaches in history that never played football! He does hold a Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine University.
Who knows where the truth is? I have a hunch.
But the theme song for this story is "Lubbock Texas in My Rearview Mirror".
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