On Monday, Mike Leach released his new book Swing Your Sword, which in part details his acrimonious departure from Texas Tech in December of 2009.
The firing was due in part to Leach’s alleged mistreatment of Adam James, the son of Craig James, the ESPN college football analyst who moonlights as a Chinook in the Texas Air National Guard; obviously, the James Gang plays a prominent role in Leach’s book, with the coach mincing no words when it comes to anyone involved in his firing.
Unfortunately, there’s apparently some collateral damage stemming from the book. Just as unfortunate, said collateral damage doesn’t involve Craig James.
ESPN the Magazine‘s Bruce Feldman, one of the most professional individuals you’ll ever run across in the business, was involved in assisting with/the editing of Leach’s biographical account, an arrangement that had been agreed upon prior to Leach’s firing. And, according to SportsByBrooks.com, Feldman has been indefinitely suspended by ESPN due to his participation in the book -- after he’d already received permission from the network and his bosses to do work on the book.
From Brooks:Well before Mike Leach was terminated by Texas Tech in late 2009, Feldman had agreed in principle to assist the coach in compiling material for a Leach biography. That biography, in which Feldman was mostly charged with recording Leach’s first-person account of his life, was released this week with the title, Swing Your Sword.
Because of Leach’s acrimonious departure from Texas Tech, which allegedly stemmed from complaints about the coach’s alleged treatment of the son of ESPN college football analyst Craig James, Feldman’s participation in Swing Your Sword was not initially assured. Multiple management and editorial sources at ESPN have told me in recent months that Feldman would only participate in the Leach book project upon direct approval from ESPN management - which Feldman indeed received.
We have reached out to ESPN requesting both a confirmation/denial and their side of the story, but we’ve yet to hear back from the WWL. All that does, in light of Brooks’ report, is leave many, many questions unanswered. Such as...So, ESPN, after giving him permission, indefinitely suspends not only one of that website’s best writers but one of the best in the college game, period, but still employs the man who allegedly launched a smear campaign against Leach that ultimately ended in the coach’s firing? So, Leach sued ESPN as well Spaeth Communications (Smears ‘R Us) in November of 2010 for libel and slander as Feldman was working on the book; was still reportedly given approval after the suit was filed to continue working on the book; and yet the book’s release pushed them over the edge? So, the allegations made in Leach’s lawsuit...
“ESPN published and failed to retract false and damaging statements based on information it obtained in large part from Craig James… who ESPN knew to be hostile to Leach.”
"[The case also concerns] the false, misleading and defamatory campaign against Leach by Spaeth Communications, a public relations firm hired by Craig James for the purpose of creating public opinion hostile to Leach.”
...didn’t prompt ESPN to to indefinitely suspend Feldman or bar him from working on the book eight months ago, but the release of the book three days ago did?
I guess, though, when you’ve been wallowing in hypocrisy for well over a decade, you get used to the stench.