While sitting in an unlocked media room adjacent to a Texas Tech practice field on December 19, 2009, Adam James sent his father, ESPN announcer Craig James, a series of text messages.

The text messages, sent while practice was underway on a 66-degree day in Lubbock, included the following:

Hey, you’re going to like this.

Leach thinks it’s impossible for me to have a concussion and that I’m just being a pussy.

So for punishment he had me locked in a pitch black shed for the whole practice.

And they won’t let me out.

And if they catch me even so much as leaning against the wall they’re going to kick me off the team

After receiving the text messages, Craig James replied via text, “can you call me?”

Adam James, who had been directed to the media room by head TTU trainer Steve Pincock, replied to his father, “no, just text.”

The ESPN announcer then text his son the message, “call me when you can and think about what you will allow me to do.”

On March 13, 2010, during his sworn deposition, Adam James recalled his thoughts when he first text his father:

“We have the same sense of humor and personality, and I thought — we thought it was funny. So I said ‘you’re going to like this.‘”

Adam James also said on March 13, 2010, that he had never spoken to Leach about the concussion he referenced in his texts to his father, nor did Leach or anyone else ever tell him he would be punished for “so much as leaning against the wall.”

On Dec. 19, 2009, after spending 90 minutes in the media room, Adam James eventually let himself out of the building as no one was outside to open the unlocked door.

After Craig James received the texts from his son on Dec. 19, 2009, he contacted then-Chairman of the Texas Tech Board of Regents, Larry Anders. Anders later recalled during a sworn deposition on March 23, 2010, how he was first introduced to the situation by the ESPN announcer:

.. there was a message on my wife’s cellphone from his (Craig James) wife Marilyn. That I needed to talk to Craig and it was a matter of life and death.

Anders, who had been set to attend a wedding event, contacted the ESPN announcer who told him his son had been “shut in an electrical closet” while “humiliated” with “extreme profanity” by Leach. Also during the call, which came on the same day Craig James had received the Dec. 19 texts from his son, Anders said the ESPN announcer demanded Leach apologize and “recommended” the coach be fired.

During his sworn depositon on April 13, 2010, current Texas Tech Board of Regents Chairman Jerry Turner, who was Vice Chairman at the time, reported what Anders told him of his exchange with Craig James on the same day the ESPN announcer received text messages from his son at TTU practice:

Larry said that based on his conversation with Craig James, Craig James wanted Mike Leach fired. I said to Larry, ‘I don’t believe that.’

Obviously I was wrong, Craig James did want Mike Leach fired.

Craig James also called Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance to report what his son had told him. Later, Hance recalled the conversation with the ESPN announcer during his March 11, 2010, sworn deposition:

He (Craig James) wanted an apology and he wanted him (Mike Leach) fired and I said, “‘Craig, if you fire him do you think he will apologize? Both things are not going to happen.’”

When asked at the same deposition if he thought a Leach apology to James could’ve saved the coach’s job, the Chancellor of Texas Tech said, “no.”

On the same day Adam James sent text messages to Craig James while Texas Tech practice was underway the son of the ESPN announcer also shot cellphone video of an “electrical closet.”

The space, which appeared well-lit in the video and included footage in which two chairs were visible, was located next to the media room where TTU Trainer Steve Pincock had ordered Adam James to stay for the remaining moments of practice.

Public relations firm Spaeth Communications founder Merrie Spaeth later indicated to SbB that, “immediately after the second (cellphone) video was shot (on Dec. 19), Craig James contacted Spaeth to advise him.”

The next day, Dec. 20, 2009, Texas Tech investigator Charlotte Bingham interviewed Adam James in response to the complaint from the James family about Leach to Texas Tech administrators.

On Dec. 23, 2009, Bingham provided a report of her fact finding to Hance, Anders, Turner, TTU President Guy Bailey and Athletic Director Gerald Myers. During her March 5, 2010, deposition, Bingham noted of her report about the James family complaint:

I informed President Bailey, Chancellor Hance, Larry Anders, Jerry Turner and Gerald Myers that Mike Leach had not required Adam James to stand in an electrical closet.

Adam James told me that he went into the electrical closet and that he stood in the electrical closet for approximately five minutes.

Bingham noted in her investigation that the son of the ESPN announcer had stayed in the media room for “one and a half hours“, with the door to the building “opened every 15 or 20 minutes” so TTU trainers could check on Adam James.

Bingham later said that TTU President Bailey’s Chief of Staff, Grace Hernandez, reported during the same Dec. 23, 2009, meeting that her own investigation had determined that Adam “never had to stand in an electrical closet.”

When asked during a deposition if he had heard that Adam James had “napped” during his 90-minute stay in the media room on Dec. 19, 2009, Texas Tech Chancellor Hance replied, “I’d heard that.”

Bingham also reported of Adam James during the same interview:

He stated that Coach Leach was verbally abusive to players, hated by the entire team and had made it living hell on the receivers.

Bingham also interviewed Craig James on Dec. 20, 2009 as part of the official internal Texas Tech investiation and later said that the ESPN announcer had made a”threat of litigation” against the school to her “and that (litigation against Texas Tech by the James family) would be a can of worms and it would not be pretty.”

The same day Bingham and Hernandez presented their findings of fact to Texas Tech officials, Craig James sent an email to TTU Chancellor Hance reporting that the claims of his son had now been “verified” and that, “if any organization or person did what Mike Leach did, they would be fired. Which is exactly what we expect to happen to Mike (Leach).”

Current Texas Tech Board of Regents Chairman Turner also received the email from the ESPN announcer and supplied this reaction to Hance:

I interpret his (Craig James) email as a threat he will go public if we don’t take the action he requested.

The next communication Turner received from James - via Hance - confirmed exactly that.

On Dec. 26, 2009, Hance received an email from Craig James that he forwarded to Turner, then-Board of Regents Chairman Anders and Texas Tech President Guy Bailey that included the following:

Bottom line: Tech is absolutely exposed as a university with each hour that passes. The team, the staff, and increasingly others at the school know that a substantial charge has been made, and we understand it has been verified by your own investigative team.

Kent, I ask you and the board members this: Have each of you seen the shed and electrical closet Adam was confined to? I’d recommend each of you visit the Places … walk in them and turn the lights off. NOW, imagine standing there for three hours in the cold without being allowed to sit down or lean against.

This story will become public at some point and you can count on the fact that some television cameras will show this picture.

During his March 13, 2010, deposition, Craig James was asked, “When you wrote this email of 12/26 you did not believe Adam had been confined to the electrical closet for a total of three hours, fair?”

Craig James replied, “Yes.”

On Dec. 27, 2009, TTU President Guy Bailey drafted a letter addressed to Mike Leach that included a private reprimand and $60,000 fine. The final line of the letter read:

This concludes the inquiry into allegations made by Adam James and his parents. If other information about other incidents emerges, we will investigate them and take appropriate action as warranted.

Instead of the letter being delivered, on the same day TTU investigator Bingham left a voicemail with Leach’s attorney that stated, “if there’s not just some incredible objection, Mike needs to sign the letter — that he sign the letter that he was presented with (earlier) — and return it to (TTU attorney’s office) or return it to the president (Guy Bailey) and then he needs to work on some sort of apology.”

No deadline of when the coach was required to fulfill the request was given by Bingham - or anyone at TTU - to Leach or his attorney.

In the same voicemail to Leach’s attorney, Bingham referenced “outside pressure” from Craig James as a reason Texas Tech was looking to resolve the James family complaint as soon as possible.

The next day Texas Tech announced that Leach had been suspended.

90 minutes after Texas Tech released a statement reporting that Leach’s suspension was in response to a complaint by the family of an unnamed Texas Tech football player, ESPN reporter Joe Schad broke the news that Adam James was the player in question.

Schad next provided the following details of the treatment of Adam James at the hands of the newly-suspended Texas Tech football coach:

A source close to the James family said Leach called a trainer and directed him to move James “to the darkest place, to clean out the equipment and to make sure that he could not sit or lean. He was confined for three hours.”

A source told The Associated Press that James said Leach told him if he came out, he would be kicked off the team.

According to the source, Leach told the trainer, two days later, to “put [James] in the darkest, tightest spot. It was in an electrical closet, again, with a guard posted outside.”

The claims by the anonymous “source close to the James family” were not noted in the ESPN report as being alleged, though the same claims had already been debunked by Texas Tech’s own internal investigation as part of the aformentioned report by Charlotte Bingham and Grace Hernandez to Texas Tech administrators seven days earlier.

Three months later, on March 13, 2010, deposition testimony by Adam James revealed that the claims that had previously - and repeatedly - been presented by ESPN as the primary facts that led to Leach’s Texas Tech ouster were actually completely incorrect.

After ESPN broke the news that Adam James was the player who had initiated the complaint - via his ESPN announcer father’s public relations firm - Spaeth Communications released a statement to the media that included, “The entire James family is supportive of the University and looks forward to a resolution of the matter.”

Less than 48 hours later, Mike Leach was fired.

After Leach’s firing, Craig James said of the media publicity that immediately preceded the coach’s ouster:

Anyone who thinks we were asked to go through this, think again. We had to do it.

This (Leach firing) is all a result of what happened to Adam a couple weeks ago.

There’s not a mom and dad in this country who wouldn’t have done what we did if they knew what we knew about our son.

This isn’t something that we asked for. We continue to be a victim of something.

Less than a week after Leach was fired, ESPN’s highest-rated daily TV talkshow, PARDON THE INTERRUPTION with co-hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, addressed the subject of Leach’s firing and his future job prospects. As part of the debate, Tony Kornheiser said:

I think he will have to convince a college president he won’t lock a kid up in a tool shed or put him in a cage.

It was arrogance and stupidity and behaving like you are above the law at all times.

He didn’t get fired for coaching.

Five months later while speaking to a church gathering in Dallas, ESPN’s Craig James stated:

My son was being treated in an unfair, unimaginable, and unthinkable manner. We filed a complaint with the university; private, hoping to quietly protect Adam to stop the insanity that was being done to him. Not once, but twice.

The lies, the accusations, the death threats, police sitting outside our home. The bounty on our lives. The insanity that comes from someone’s actions, are crazy.

Adam and my footprints, and what we’ve done in life when we hit the wall we can look around and our character, our honesty and our integrity are in place.

Now the other side of the equation, the party (Mike Leach) that’s accusing, I wonder what their beach looks like?

I have felt strongly that we have been in a spirtual war for the past four months. Our faith, our christian family has sustained us.

It’s important to lead a godly life.

Adam James suited up for his final home game as a Texas Tech Red Raider on Nov. 12, 2011, against Oklahoma State.

Before the game, James participated in Senior Day festivities with family members.

Texas Tech later lost the game 66-6 after trailing 49-0 at halftime.

His father skipped the game.

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During an appearance on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network Wednesday, an attorney for Mike Leach provided more striking revelations about the behavior of Craig James while directly under the auspices of ESPN.

(Leach lawyer for ESPN suit: James called TT coaches from ESPN booth)

Lead Leach attorney Steve Heninger reported to Finebaum that “well before” James ever lodged a complaint to Texas Tech about Leach’s alleged mistreatment of his son, Red Raider football player Adam James, the former ESPN announcer, “was calling (Texas Tech) coaches from the booth during games and telling them to put Adam in and let him play.”

Excerpt of Heninger’s comments to Finebaum Wednesday:

Heninger:

“He was calling (Texas Tech) coaches from the booth during games and telling them to put Adam in and let him play. Disrupting games. Then at night he was leaving voicemails that he was upset that Adam wasn’t … (Finebaum interrupts)”

Finebaum:

“So Craig James from the ESPN broadcast booth was calling Texas Tech coaches? Is that correct?”

Heninger:

“On some occasions, that’s right. I think he called three or four games that year, that Tech had … the coaches were worried and went to Leach with the problem, (they said) ‘what do we do? This is the ESPN guy telling us that we need to be playing Adam more’

“In fact, Mike met with Adam and said, ‘we’ve got these voicemails Adam (from father Craig), do you want your teammates to hear these voicemails? To hear that your dad is calling the coaching staff trying to get you more playing time? How do you think that’s going to play with your teammates?’

“Adam asked him (Leach) not to play the tapes and he didn’t. And this was all well before the controversy about an electrical closet that never happened. That’s the backdrop of this whole thing.”

During the 2009 college football season, James worked at least three Texas Tech games for ESPN, including Tech’s Sept. 26 game against Houston, Oct. 17 game against Nebraska and Nov. 14 game against Oklahoma State. James was also originally scheduled to work ESPN’s telecast of Texas Tech’s meeting with Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl on New Year’s Eve - but was pulled off the broadcast after his complaint helped create Leach’s ouster at the school.

As reported by SbB on Jan. 16, 2010, Leach’s lawsuit against Texas Tech alleges that Craig James called then-Texas Tech Director of Football Operations Tommy McVay and then-Tech assistant coach Lincoln Riley on the same day in 2009 about his son, “stating, in effect, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing. Adam James is the best player at the wide receiver position. If you’ve got the balls to call me back, and I don’t think you do, call me back.’”

In his deposition for the Leach lawsuit against Texas Tech, Craig James testified the following on March 13, 2011:

Paul Dobrowski: Did you call (Tech assistant coach) Lincoln Riley at that time (2009)?
Craig James: Yes.
PD: What did you say?
CJ: Left a message for him to call me.
PD: What did you say on the message?
CJ: “Give me a call. I would like to talk to you.”
PD: Why did you call him?
CJ: The same reason, to find out what Adam had done, what we could do to keep him on track here and not go into the tank.
PD: And did you leave a message to the effect that, “if you have the balls and I don’t think you do, call me back?”
CJ: I may have. I may have.
PD: Well, when you say you may have, that indicates to me that that kind of rings a bell or sounds familiar.
CJ: I could have. I could have.
PD: Okay. As you sit here today, do you believe that you left that kind of a message?
CJ: I believe I could have, yes.

Later during the 2009 season in which Craig James made the complaints referred to by Heninger yesterday, the ESPN announcer accused Leach of mistreating his son after an alleged injury. That accusation led to Leach’s firing by Texas Tech.

Heninger also told Finebaum Wednesday that as soon as the Texas Supreme Court renders a verdict in Leach’s appeal for a jury trial against Texas Tech in his wrongful termination lawsuit against the school, he will pursue his defamation lawsuit against ESPN.

A lawsuit which prominently documents James’ specific, behind-the-scenes role - which included providing son Adam’s cellphone number to ESPN reporter Joe Schad - in ESPN’s on-air coverage of the coach’s ouster at Texas Tech.

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Earlier today Jason McIntrye of TheBigLead.com broke the news that Jim Rome was moving his weekday Jim Rome is Burning television show from ESPN to the CBS Sports Network. (ESPN has since confirmed Rome’s last TV appearance on behalf of the company will be January 27.)

In response to Rome’s show no longer airing weekdays at 4:30p ET on ESPN2, SbB has learned that ESPN2 weekday offering Numbers Never Lie will be moved from 3:30p ET to 4 and Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable will be pushed back from its normal ESPN2 weekday 4p ET airtime to 4:30.

ESPN will likely eventually fill the 3:30p ET weekday slot on ESPN2 with another original programming production.

Multiple sources Friday indicated to SbB that as part of his new deal with CBS, Rome has agreed to make regular appearances on CBS-owned Showtime.

SbB has been told that Rome will be the centerpiece of an aggressive move by Showtime Sports into the increased production of original sports programming under new executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza.

Before Rome struck the CBS deal he had former ESPN programming chief Mark Shapiro, who worked on Rome’s original ESPN2 show as a production assistant, approach NBC about a similar arrangement.

NBC, which recently launched a 24-hour sports programming channel, passed.

UPDATE: Multiple sources tell SbB that a primary reason Rome departed ESPN was that network executives wanted to move his TV show to ESPN’s production facility in Los Angeles and force the ESPN2 show host to drop his non-ESPN, television-only production team.

SbB has been told that shooting the show near Rome’s Orange County home, while also footing the bill for Rome’s personal TV production unit, was costing ESPN upwards of $7 million per season.

For Rome’s TV show to continue on ESPN, the network would’ve no longer been obligated to defray such production costs.

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ESPN college football writer Bruce Feldman was suspended indefinitely during a conference call with three ESPN officials this morning.

ESPN Vice President and Director of News Vince Doria, ESPN THE MAGAZINE Editor-in-Chief & ESPN Books Editorial Director Gary Hoenig, and ESPN.com Editor-in-Chief Pat Stiegman participated in the conference call and were behind the decision to punish Feldman. Read more…

On May 29, ESPN’s Outside The Lines program aired an investigative piece on 7-on-7 summer football.

As part of the piece, Joe Schad confronted 17-year-old 7-on-7 participant DeonTay Thomas and Thomas’ 7-on-7 coach, 23-year-old Cory Robinson about a photo taken on a boat before a 7-on-7 tournament in South Carolina.

Though no NCAA violation has been traced to anything in connection to the photo of Thomas or his coach, in blindsiding the two on-camera about the picture, Schad’s implication was that Thomas and Robinson may have been involved in activity outside NCAA rules.

But while Schad employed “gotcha” journalism on an unsuspecting teenager and his 20-something coach, the ESPN Outside The Lines reporter completely ignored a startling detail about the website page where the same photo was originally located.

Just below the boat photo Schad characterized as a representation of the dubious nature of 7-on-7 football - on the same website page - was an ESPN publicity image of Mel Kiper, Jr.. Below that picture of Kiper was a message from the ESPN NFL Draft analyst pledging his “support” to the same organization Schad was castigating in his OTL hit piece.

After the Outside The Lines report aired, the photo of Kiper was removed from the website page though below is a screen capture of the page before the images of the boat and Kiper were removed:

Unlike 17-year-old Thomas and 23-year-old Robinson, who the NCAA has not charged with any wrongdoing, Kiper was not interviewed for the Outside The Lines investigative piece nor was his presence on the same website page as the boat photo in question even acknowledged by ESPN.

Though ESPN’s Bob Ley did note Kiper’s involvement in 7-on-7 football before Schad’s piece aired. Ley on May 29:

“ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper, Jr., has been involved in the sport.”

Less than 10 minutes later, following Schad’s report, Ley said:

“We mentioned earlier Mel Kiper, Jr., has had an involvement with a national 7-on-7 tournament. He is no longer involved.”

On May 29, after the Outside The Lines 7-on-7 piece reported by Schad originally aired on ESPN, an accompanying ESPN.com article recounting the on-air OTL piece was posted. At the bottom of the story read:

“Editor’s note: ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has had involvement with a national 7-on-7 tournament, but he is no longer involved.”

On June 3 at 7:30pm ET, the message at the bottom of the same Outside The Lines 7-on-7 investigative piece on ESPN.com had been changed to:

“Editor’s note: This story, initially published May 29, noted that Mel Kiper Jr. was no longer involved with a national 7-on-7 tournament. On June 3, ESPN released the following statement: ‘Mel had told us that he was no longer going to be involved, but later changed his mind and is maintaining his relationship with the tournament.’“

On June 4 at 10:30am ET, the message at the bottom of the same Outside The Lines 7-on-7 investigative piece on ESPN.com had been changed again:

“Editor’s note: This story, initially published May 29, noted that ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. was no longer involved with a national 7-on-7 tournament.”

Despite the latter claim that Kiper was “no longer involved with a national 7-on-7 on tournament,” Saturday I noted that ESPN Kiper was still formally involved in a 7-on-7 football-based business venture originating from the website 7on7u.com. A direct association which entailed an extensive network of Kiper-branded 7-on-7 events throughout the country culminating with a national tournament bearing his name,

Saturday I also noted the deletion of ESPN’s previous acknowledgement that Kiper had “changed his mind” and is “maintaining his relationship with the tournament.”

Those events led me to conclude that ESPN was actively covering up Kiper’s involvement in the same activity Joe Schad cited in verbally attacking a 17-year-old high school student-athlete during his May 29 Outside The Lines piece.

After my post detailing the coverup, ESPN, for the fourth time, changed the disclosure tag which followed Schad’s Outside The Lines story on ESPN.com:

Editor’s note: This story, initially published May 29, noted that ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. was no longer involved with a national 7-on-7 tournament. On June 3, ESPN released the following statement: “Mel had told us that he was no longer going to be involved, but later changed his mind and is maintaining his relationship with the tournament.”

The change was clear confirmation that a coverup had indeed taken place.

So why did ESPN delete its own, previous acknowledgement of Kiper’s 7-on-7 activities?

Maybe it had something to do with the Southeastern Conference’s ban on all things 7-on-7 on Friday.

Or perhaps ESPN suddenly hiding Kiper’s 7-on-7 business venture less than 24 hours after the SEC’s newly-instituted embargo on 7-on-7 football was merely an extraordinary coincidence.

Or it could’ve been the fact that the NCAA, as noted by Schad in his Outside The Lines report, had recently hired “seven full-time investigators” to combat what was portrayed by Schad as a dubious development in college football recruiting.

That is, the recent growth of 7-on-7 football. (Thanks to people like Schad colleague Kiper.)

In requesting guidance on why ESPN had reversed field multiple times in its portrayal of Kiper’s 7-on-7 business venture, I was provided the following statement by ESPN vice president, public relations for college, news and networks information Josh Krulewitz:

“We were doing a story on 7 on 7 football and felt in interest of disclosure we should note Mel’s association which we did.

“It’s pretty simple and fairly standard in media for entities to note similar things as part of reporting when there is a connection.

“And as the Editor’s note on the report clearly states, Mel initially said he planned to end his association, but changed his mind and decided to maintain his connection.”

Over the past 48 hours, I did ask an ESPN official - multiple times - why the network changed its tune so many times about Kiper. I also inquired as to who at ESPN had knowledge of Kiper’s 7-on-7 association before the Outside The Lines piece was aired and why Kiper was not asked on-camera about his photographic presence on the same website page as the image cited by Schad in his “gotcha” of Thomas and Robinson.

The above statement was the response I was provided to those inquiries, leaving open the question of why Kiper was given a pass by ESPN for his 7-on-7 activities while others, who have not been proven to have committed NCAA violations, were not.

And why ESPN would allow Kiper to be involved in an activity that his employer’s award-winning investigative unit, Outside The Lines, recently portrayed as a serious threat to the integrity of college football’s observance of NCAA rules.

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Yesterday I reported that ESPN management attempted to script questions that ESPN radio hosts asked Those Guys Have All The Fun co-author Jim Miller during three interviews about the ESPN-centric book on Tuesday.

Former longtime ESPN on-air talents Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen talked about the unprecedented practice on Patrick’s nationally syndicated FOX Sports Radio and Direct TV show on Friday.

Dan Patrick: “Did you see the report from Sports by Brooks that the mothership (ESPN) had the (ESPN book) author (Jim Miller) on and they had scripted questions to ask him?”

Rich Eisen: “No. No! On which show?”

Patrick: “Mike & Mike and .. ”

Eisen:  “The magical van peezy (Scott Van Pelt)? I heard he had a very good interview with him.”

Patrick:  “They had recommended questions for the author. How silly is that?!”

Eisen: “When he goes on next week with (Bill) Simmons I imagine that won’t be happening.”

Patrick: “Simmons wants to be anti-ESPN while being all things ESPN. … From what I’m told, there were suggested questions that you may want to ..”

Eisen: “The horse is out of the barn with that book.”

Patrick: “I know, it’s silly.”

Eisen: “700 pages worth!”

Patrick: “I know, it is silly. That’s what Sports by Brooks is reporting and this is dead solid here.”

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Tuesday a book about ESPN, called Those Guys Have All The Fun, was released to the public. Co-Author Jim Miller, who was granted access to ESPN’s Bristol headquarters to conduct interviews with company employees for the book, hit the promotional media trail the same day to encourage sales of his 763-page work.

Those Tuesday appearances included stops on the national ESPN radio shows Mike and Mike In The Morning, The Scott Van Pelt Show and The Doug Gottlieb Show.

Though the book includes a minumum of negative material involving anyone at ESPN not already known for notorious behavior, it may have come as a surprise to some that ESPN would promote even a quasi-controversial endeavor about the company to its national audience.

Though from what I was told this week about the circumstances of Miller’s radio appearances that day, ESPN management did everything in its power to control what was asked of the author by the hosts of the shows.

When Miller was booked on the shows two weeks ago, ESPN management took the highly unusual step of drawing up talking points, in the form of six questions, that it highly encouraged on-air hosts adhere to while interviewing Miller.

Along with those talking points, ESPN management asked some of those involved in each show to make sure the word “dominate” was not used while engaging Miller on the air.

Needless to say, some of those involved in each show weren’t exactly overjoyed at the idea. In the case of Van Pelt and Russillo, I was told they flatly refused to entertain ESPN management’s suggested questions.

Thursday I went back and listened to all three interviews, and what I heard did little to dispute the notion that ESPN management did in fact attempt to control what was asked of ESPN book author Miller.

The first question of each interview is particularly striking, considering it was the same query in all three cases.

To paraphrase, Miller was asked, “Why ESPN?”

From there, the interviews come off as - at best - perfunctory, with a noticeable lack of followup to Miller’s answers.

Miller was given a mere five minutes by Greenberg & Golic and Gottlieb while Miller’s audience with Van Pelt & Russillo lasted seven minutes.

None of that analysis is an indictment of any of those involved in the shows, on or off-air. If ESPN management saw fit to allow Miller to promote his book about ESPN over the company’s national radio airwaves, it had absolutely no business calling into question the professionalism of any of its on-air talent. (Which is what it did with the absurd talking points.)

If you ever wanted a material example of what monopoly wrought on an industry, the abject arrogance of ESPN executives in asserting editorial demands on its on-air talent is it.

UPDATE (4:42am PT): In lieu of the above revelation, a rather unfortunate quote from ESPN Network Senior VP/General Manager Mo Davenport from a post on radio-online.com this week touting the opening of the new ESPN radio studios on June 1:

“ESPN Radio consumers are no longer simply radio listeners. The June 1 festivities will celebrate our commitment to ensure that fans not only get their ESPN Radio content how they want it, but also when they want it, and where they want it.”

ESPN is a huge company with lots and lots of pot-tasters. In this particular case, the Gordon Ramsays involved did not come from the ranks of radio programming personnel.

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This past Saturday at a speaking engagement in Indiana, Bob Knight said that the starters on Kentucky’s 2010 NCAA basketball tournament team “had not been to class that semester.”

(Audio of Williams’ comments on KentuckySportsRadio.com below)

Speaking to a group in Wabash, Indiana, Knight’s remarks were captured on video:

Knight’s exact quote was:

“Kentucky year before last started five players in the NCAA tournament that had not been to class that semester. That’s that one and none philosophy.”

University of Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart released a statement Monday night that reported Knight’s comment about the 2010 UK hoops team to be “blatantly erroneous.”

Tuesday ESPN college basketball analyst and former Duke basketball star Jay Williams appeared on KentuckySportsRadio.com to address Knight’s comments about Kentucky. After being read exactly what Knight said about the UK NCAA tournament team in question by show host Matt Jones, Williams said, in part:

He (Knight) does owe Kentucky an apology for that (statement) because those are accusations which are wrong.

Williams was later asked by Jones, “Do you believe ESPN as an entity, with Bobby Knight as an employee, should make a statement or address this in some way?” Read more…

On Jan. 6, two days after he was fired by ESPN for making obscene, degrading remarks to ESPN colleague Jeannine Edwards - and then failing to apologize for his admitted indiscretion by ESPN request - Ron Franklin wrote in an email to Richard Sandomir of the NEW YORK TIMES, “I just want this thing to end so we can have our lives back.”

(Franklin Austin lawsuit same day as ESPN-TX announcement: Coincidence?)

Franklin’s Jan. 6 lament to the newspaper followed a public apology on Jan. 3 - made through ESPN - in which he admitted, “I said some things I shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry. I deserved to be taken off the Fiesta Bowl.” (Franklin never personally apologized to Edwards, which contributed to his firing.)

Yesterday on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Texas school officials announced a groundbreaking partnership that creates a sports network expressly designed to carry Univ. of Texas sports programming.

On the same day, less than a mile away at the Travis County Courthouse, the attorney for Austin resident and former Texas football and basketball announcer Ron Franklin filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against ESPN on the announcer’s behalf.

Franklin’s lawsuit filing subsequently caused at least one outlet, the New York Times, to juxtapose ESPN’s big announcement about the Texas Network right next to the news of Franklin suing the very same sports network.

(NYT: ESPN-Texas announcement next to Franklin-ESPN lawsuit)

It’s common knowledge at ESPN that Franklin had viewed the ESPN-Texas television endeavor as a possible part of his own, personal active retirement. But thanks to his ouster at the network, not even Franklin’s staunchest allies at the Univ. of Texas were willing to jeopardize the $300 million dollar deal by demanding that the former venerable voice of the Longhorns be included on ESPN Texas Network sports broadcasts.

But why would someone who still makes his home in Austin and was the former sports voice of the Univ. of Texas file a lawsuit against ESPN at a courthouse less than a mile away from campus on the exact day the school proudly announced a landmark broadcasting agreement with the same company?

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Monday Stanford completed a historic football season with a convincing victory over Virgina Tech in the Orange Bowl. The win was the culmination of the greatest program turnaround in college football history. (At least outside of Evanston and Manhattan, Kansas.)

(Video below)

In five years, the Stanford team has done the unthinkable, going from 1-11 in 2006 - the year before current coach Jim Harbaugh arrived - to 12-1 this season with its only loss on the road to top-ranked Oregon.

No, this isn’t any ordinary, bowl-victorious college football team. The Cardinal’s season is undeniably cause for a certain measure of awe and reflection.

Sadly though, the primary disseminators of Stanford’s crowning achievement, Orange Bowl broadcaster ESPN, steeply discounted the historical significance of the moment by focusing on what is, in comparison, a rather transient subject. Read more…