And, somewhere, a pirate-loving head coach is smiling a satisfied smile.
Craig James, an ESPN college football analyst through the 2011 season, gave up that position to make a run in the political arena. That run by the former SMU running back, however, fell well short of its goal.
According to multiple media outlets, James conceded the primary race for the Republican nomination for Texas’ U.S. Senate seat late Tuesday night. With just nearly 70 percent of the precincts reporting at the time, James had received four percent of the votes, which was fourth out of the nine GOP candidates running to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison.
The unofficial final results had James garnering 3.6% of the more than 1.3 million votes cast, or just a little over 50,000. For comparison’s sake, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and former Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who advanced to a late-July runoff for the vacant seat, received 44.6 percent (621,000 votes) and 34.2 percent (477,000) of the votes, respectively.
James left his job at ESPN this past December to make his run at the U.S. Senate.
In December of 2009, Mike Leach was fired as Texas Tech’s head coach after an incident involving one of his players, Adam James, the son of the then-ESPN personality. Leach has accused James in lawsuits of, among other things, using his “power” at ESPN to get him fired; calling him a “helicopter dad” who attempted to pressure the coaching staff into playing his son more; and hiring a PR firm to spread what the current Washington State head coach refers to as untruths.
(Tip O’ the Cap: SBNation.com)