My Own Thoughts on the Mike Leach Scenario

After the week of this whole Mike Leach mess I have decided to put my own thoughts down just to remind myself.

1. On the video: I am finding the timing of the video suspicious. 2 days after the suspension came out, after the reports starting coming out with video of the rooms all of a sudden Adam James video magically appears?? This after a lot of people have been criticizing the James over this incident. In my experience videos like this would break first before the story even based on it being on YouTube.
2. The "Conspiracy": I don't know if this started out as a conspiracy. If it did then I would go after the James family and ESPN should fire Craig. However what I think happened is that Adam complained to his father. His father which many reports show as being the "little league" father doesn't like what he hears and this story escalated from there. I believe that this got out of hand and now has become a major major mess.
3. The treating of concussions. Always defer to the trainer and so it is better to be safe then sorry. I wouldn't let a player in the game until the trainer told me personally that the kid was ok to play. But it appears that according to the trainers they were there for Adam James being able to eat ice and such.
4. How quickly the media blasted Mike Leach. I don't know how many have tried coaching but to get players to do things they sometimes don't want to do is difficult. And it seems that now anything done with the kids will now be second guessed.
5. The precedent this sets. On some of the football coaching boards I frequent the coach's say that this precedent now means they have to be uber careful in case something happens. You could look at a kid wrong and get fired is that what we are getting to?
6. I have heard some say why not take away the scholarship?  Well if Craig James is running for office in TX that just creates a political issue that you don't want.
7. The administration didn't back Mike Leach.  It is now well documented that they were wanting to fire Coach Leach.  Well now does that mean that anything?  No but I think it might have caused this problem to escalate even more.  

There is just such a whole slew of problems that this could have been avoided.  I just hope I never end up in that situation.


PS. I forgot the letter they wanted him to sign.  That was a lose lose situation in my opinion.  I know people said Mike Leach was arrogant but how many would sign a letter from your employer to admit your wrongdoing when it can be used against you for cause later?


Also, how many who are throwing Mike Leach under the bus have their jobs dependent on the performance of around 100 young men?  Yes I know that you choose this career, but still it is a tough job.  Take a step back and see how you would respond.


This is just going to get a whole lot uglier in the long run.