The new Mike Leach book, Swing Your Sword, is out.
In the book, Leach retells the events of his legally-challenged ouster at Texas Tech in late 2009 - and provides stunning new documents and details that verify a professional public relations campaign paid for and orchestrated by ESPN’s Craig James against the all-time winningest coach in Tech football history.
If you followed the story as it initially unfolded, you may be aware of at least some of the actions of Texas Tech officials during the regrettable episode. Actions that left Leach no choice but to seek legal remedy soon to culminate at the Texas Supreme Court.
If you were reading SbB at the time, it wasn’t unreasonable to suspect that Craig James and his professional public relations representative, Spaeth Communications founder Merrie Spaeth, may have had a role in shaping ESPN’s coverage of the story.
But now, thanks to Texas Tech’s status as a state-funded institution, emails obtained through open records requests by Leach and his attorneys show a concerted effort by Craig James and paid agents of the ESPN analyst to materially impact ESPN’s editorial approach to Leach’s untimely departure from Texas Tech.
Leach reports in his new book that even before a complaint against Leach was lodged by Craig James regarding the coach’s alleged mistreatment of his son - former Texas Tech football player Adam James - Craig James had hired Spaeth. (It was Spaeth who hatched the infamous Swift Boat public relations campaign that helped turn public opinion against John Kerry’s during the 2004 presidential election campaign.)
Here is one such email included in Swing Your Sword in which Spaeth Communications employee Rebecca Shaw asks Craig James in an email “if we want to forward the players’ names and numbers exclusively to [ESPN reporter] Joe [Schad].”:
From: Rebecca Shaw
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 11:30 PM
To: James, Craig Subject: RE: ESPN 6:29 PMCraig - Merrie’s position - and I agree - is that the story has been put to bed tonight. Let’s take a look at the coverage first thing in the morning and make a decision then if we want to forward the players’ names and numbers exclusively to [ESPN’s] Joe [Schad], whether we want to include the AP reporter, or if we want to hold off a day to see if the university makes a statement. I’ll be up early checking the coverage. Merrie’s good with the statement that I drafted for you for ESPN. Would you like it circulated to Kevin and Jim or do you want to noodle on it awhile?
Rebecca Shaw Executive Vice President Spaeth Communications, Inc.
In addition to the emails, Leach reports in the following Swing Your Sword excerpt that Craig James went so far as to personally provide the cellphone number of his son, Adam James, to ESPN college football reporter Joe Schad:
There were statements out there from Adam James’s two position coaches, Dana Holgorsen and Lincoln Riley. There was a statement from the strength coach, Bennie Wylie. There were statements from three of James’s teammates—players that had been successful in the program and had witnessed Adam’s behavior, as well as mine.CBSSports.com and other media outlets chose to run those statements. ESPN, which also had them, chose not to.
When one of my agents asked Joe Schad, the ESPN reporter, why they neglected to report those statements, he said he didn’t see how they were relevant to the story. But when Craig James gave Schad Adam’s cell number so he could hand the phone over to his roommate Chris Perry, a back-up lineman whom we’d suspended twice, his statement was considered relevant.
There’s much more incriminating, verifiable information in the book as it pertains to the role ESPN’s Craig James played in helping to personally direct ESPN’s coverage of Texas Tech’s inexplicable decision to terminate Leach.
Leach’s book is now shipping and the Kindle version is available for download. (Bought it myself today.)
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7:48 pm on July 11th, 2011
Mike Leach, Oregons new head coach?
8:13 pm on July 11th, 2011
Not surprised. ESPN was all over Auburn with charges of ‘racism’ when not hiring Turner GIll (despite several other colleges passing on him as well) and going with Chizik. Then, ESPN would not let the Cam Newton story go, milking it for everything it was worth!
I love that ESPN broadcast so many games, but hate they control so much of the conversation about the schools - and ultimately control the polls and the end results.
8:21 pm on July 11th, 2011
Un. Be. LIEVABLE!!!
Holy Smokes.
9:38 pm on July 11th, 2011
Check Leach’s treatment of “Easy Ed” Britton:
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http://www.projo.com/college/content/Leach_Bully_Coaches_12-31-09_6OGV9MU_v3.398701a.html
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9:46 pm on July 11th, 2011
Leach’s staff is on record that AJ was never banished to an electrical closet. CJ contacted the offensive staff to demand more playing time for AJ. Leach’s success & compensation lead rubbed TT admin. in all the wrong ways. ESPN reporting told a pitiful story of a concussion victim being punished by an evil Head Coach. The Worldwide Leader in Sports…struck again!
10:42 pm on July 11th, 2011
The pious Craig James, he who stood up in front of a church congregation and professed his faith and innocence.
One must consider that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a car wash would make you a car.
10:56 pm on July 11th, 2011
Nice to see Craig still has Spaeth on retainer. Same Britton link in my Facebook post linking this post: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sports-by-Brooks/181842358517996#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=183246245070654&id=181842358517996
9:52 am on July 12th, 2011
Isn’t this the same Craig James who steadfastly claims that he never received one dime from SMU during his playing days? Although everyone else on that team was stuffing their pockets, Craig was a choir boy. Can anyone really believe anything he says?
It’s “Christians” like him that give the others a bad name.
11:04 am on July 12th, 2011
Debogarsky,
james has no business being around college football. he is bias and obviously makes an unfair atmosphere. here is one of my favorite bias moments from the fool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4s8Em6g_aA
11:19 am on July 12th, 2011
A wise man doesn’t do anything that *uburn does.
11:27 am on July 12th, 2011
Texas:America’s answer to Saudi Arabia
Through dumb luck they hit oil and are overrun by hypocritical, religious zealots sitting in sweltering heat.
11:33 am on July 12th, 2011
At Auburn we have a group called the Never To Yield Foundation. The purpose of this booster funded organization is to boycott and/or threaten lawsuites against anybody that says anything bad about Auburn football in the media. But here’s the thing: The lawsuit does not have to have substance and we don”t have to win the lawsuit! Just presenting promises of legal papers and making threats is usually enough intimidation to do the trick. Nobody wants to spend time and money defending themselves, so they tend to shy away from Auburn related stories. You should do the same at Texas Tech. WDE!
11:38 am on July 12th, 2011
While it’s true that many soldiers who served with Kerry knew he’d fudged his whereabouts and had other questionable issues, and while he was also infamous for his outright lies during Congressional testimony when he returned, the Kerry claims that The War On Terror was a mere “Law Enforcement Problem,” as well as his other poorly thought out ideas, were what helped Bush defeat him.
Brooks, many communications companies are hired by public figures. Perhaps you should compile a list and cite each ones former clients or projects.
11:42 am on July 12th, 2011
Craig James wasn’t President or Athletic Director.
11:45 am on July 12th, 2011
While it’s true that many soldiers who served with Kerry knew he’d fudged his whereabouts and had other questionable issues, and while he was also infamous for his outright lies during Congressional testimony when he returned, the Kerry claims that The War On Terror was a mere “Law Enforcement Problem,” as well as his other poorly thought out ideas, were what helped Bush defeat him.
Brooks, many communications companies are hired by public figures. Perhaps you should compile a list and cite each ones former clients or projects.
3:39 pm on July 12th, 2011
Auburn looks clean.
4:22 pm on July 12th, 2011
They are the best at what they do, and have it down to an exact science.
7:42 pm on July 12th, 2011
Its just another reason why so many people love to hate ESPN. I’d love to see where Leach ends up coaching next.
8:27 pm on July 12th, 2011
Craig James is a smarmy prick. He must have something pretty incriminating on someone at ESPN to stay employed there. No way should he STILL have a national forum to comment on college football.
12:30 am on July 13th, 2011
Still banned?
8:36 am on July 13th, 2011
Auburn folks are so funny. Tick Tock.
2:21 pm on July 13th, 2011
Here’s another article concerning Edward Britton. It sounds like Leach threatened to kick him off the team if he didn’t accept the harsh punishment. It also looks like a clear violation of Leach’s contract.
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http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_/id/1783/demoted-wr-britton-getting-frozen-out-by-leach
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3:35 pm on July 15th, 2011
Leach achieved one of the highest graduation rates year-in and year-out. Leach placed a priority on studies and when the prima donnas on full scholarship didn’t want to uphold their end of the deal, Leach disciplined them. Holding young men accountable is a valued lesson that will serve them well throughout their lives…and way beyond the football field. Guns Up to the Pirate Captain!!
8:07 pm on January 2nd, 2012
Maybe if easy Ed had done his work he wouldn’t have been in the doghouse. You wonder why so many young people have a sense of entitlement??? This would have been a cakewalk compared to what someone old school like bob knight or bear Bryant would do. Knight made his star player run 1,000 up and downs for missing a bus. He did them and was in hella shape after that