Texas Tech tackles its own team
Written by Greg Shelley, Wednesday December 30 2009
One is forced to ponder what is more serious here: The allegations against Mike Leach by the James' family, or the reaction of the Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers.
I am a Texas Tech fan. Isn’t that the first step in recovery? I just thought I needed to get that out there as a preface to the rest of this forthcoming discussion about this debacle involving Texas Tech University and its handling of its well-known and widely-respected coach, Mike Leach. Evidently, the school thought it could make the majority of the Adam James issue go away by asking the coach to write an apology to the family. When he refused to apologize, they decided to suspend him, and boy oh boy did the crap hit the proverbial fan.
While it is easy to see how and why ESPN was among the first to pick up the story, purporting opinions with loose rumors, or at least one-sided accusations, it is still difficult to understand why the school’s athletic director has chosen this approach to the issue. I have spent the last 24 hours plus reading through blogs, newspapers, some silly and not-so silly comments, and watching what coverage I can get on TV, and yet it still seems that we are waiting for the actual facts. Regardless, there seems to be a big division among people (though admittedly the vast majority is siding with Leach) over the few things we apparently do know.
On the one hand, we have the folks screaming bloody murder because of Leach’s alleged mismanagement of Adam James’ medical treatment; on the other, we have folks screaming for Adam James’ head for being a cry baby and attempting to wreck the football program because he didn’t get as much playing time as his ESPN analyst dad would like. The first group should keep in mind that currently no one has even implied that James was hurt by the actions taken by Leach. Putting the “kid” (the 21-year old “man”) back on the field to practice would have been taking real risks with his health; putting him in “isolated” supervision in dark places did not.
As for the other group, I can understand the anger that comes when you perceive that one person, especially one who has been insignificant to the success of the group, chooses to consider his hurt feelings good enough reason to attempt to destroy or at least diminish all that the team has worked for. However, Adam James simply made the complaint. While it is not likely the complaint would have been given much credence if not for his father, university officials ran with it. Initial reports were that higher officials made the decision to suspend Leach, but more recent reports have filtered the source back to the AD, Gerald Myers. And, this is where the facts do appear to agree—Leach was not suspended for his actions against Adam James, but he was suspended for refusing to apologize to the James’ family. Currently, that is the decision that led to all the insanity, and it is one that will continue to harm Texas Tech for a long time to come.
We will soon be hearing more reports from the James’ family about how horrible Tech students are because of all the hate mail they are surely receiving, and unfortunately, I am sure there will be more than a few knuckleheads saying some pretty nasty things and working under the guise of being some sort of a representative of Tech, even if unofficial. Of course, Tech will get more negative press as the days roll on and Adam James is “forced” to change schools. ESPN is sure to offer up more and more bonus coverage, and it is difficult to see how both the school and the football program can come out of this with anything resembling a win. Obviously, this was a bad decision by the AD, who possibly still holds a grudge against Leach for the contract negotiations earlier this year.
I am seeing lots of bad things said about Gerald Myers too, but I haven’t really been able to figure out what he has done other than this that is all that bad. After all, he hired Leach and he brought in the Knight family to the basketball team which at least made them competitive, and the results of those hirings have definitely put Texas Tech on the national map. Yet it is Leach’s success as a football coach that has really put the school on the national scene every year. So, are pride and ego also the driving force behind the school’s decision? I would like to think not. Still, whenever I want to think that it is not actually something personal going on, I have to ponder whether the University of Texas’ AD would have taken similar actions against Mack Brown for “humiliating” a player. I know, I know, some of you will claim that Brown would never embarrass a player, especially an injured one, but I would find that hard to believe, given the nature of football.
Texas Tech is already a school that struggles mightily to recruit against the likes of Texas and Texas A&M, and during Leach’s years at Tech, he has often been able to pull in some of the top high school players in the state, due largely to the great success he has had to-date. With Leach in court at this very moment to try and overturn the suspension, I cannot imagine a scenario that has this playing out in any other way but to the detriment of the football program and for the school in general. And, that is laughable when you examine just how silly the allegations against Leach are.
Surely, coaches still “punish” players by making them do strenuous exercises whenever they fail at something. “Drop and give me twenty.” “Take a lap.” That sort of thing. I’m sure they even still publicly ridicule players who appear to be slacking. Adam James was not subjected to anything strenuous and his health was not put at risk. He took a shot to the ego and that injured ego made him feel bigger than the team. Similarly, Gerald Myers evidently took a shot to the ego when he didn’t get what he wanted back in February during contract negotiations and another shot when Leach refused to apologize to the James’ family, and now Myers evidently feels he is bigger than the school.
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Maroussia, that could draw a taunting penalty....
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It will be great to watch Texas A&M Aggies, i have bought tickets from http://ticketfront.com/event/Texas_A&M_Aggies-tickets looking forward to it.