FB: Liberty League

[Doid23]

espn's handling of this whole mess also really irks pbr....how 'bout some objective reporting for once? thats right pbr forgot we are talking about espn which  their investigative reporting is as good as (pick any rag newspaper/magazine) espn has lost so much credibility in the last 10 years...they had leach swinging from the gallows in the town square from minute 1.  all 3 of these peep's deserve each other and probably should throw espn in there as well...

Exactly, also, aside from the reporting bias, what was ESPN thinking about originally having Craig James telecast a game with his son playing? They NEEDED him to do the Alamo Bowl? I found it strange back in the day when Bob Griese would called some Michigan games with Brian Griese at QB, just plain stupid, no way that it works.

[SaintsFAN]

I heard that the 'closet' was the size of a  1 car garage.  82 has a 1 car garage and Mrs 82 has threatened to relegate 82 to it many times.  Mrs 82 should take heed of what happened to Mr. Leach.

82 would note that the 1 car garage is not small enough to warrant the firing that Leach got.  Craig James is a biatch.  Wasnt it rumored that he was doing coke the night before the '86 Super 'Blowout' that his Patriots got whacked in?  Anyone recall that?  82 seems to remember his rushing stats to be something like 13 carries for minus 8 yards???

JT thinks it was this guy 82 is thinking of:

In 1989, Stanley Wilson, a fullback with the Cincinnati Bengals, was found impaired by cocaine in his hotel room the night before Super Bowl XXIV in Miami. The next day, the Bengals lost a 20-16 heartbreaker to San Francisco."

He did not play.  JT remembers Boomer Esiason recently saying Wilson ran harder when he was high, but that not playing him the Super Bowl was the right decision.

I think he is now in prison for life --- 3 strike rule.  That was a tough loss... the Bengals kicked a FG for the lead late, but left too much time for some small and below average arm strength QB (per the experts when he came out of college)

[SaintsFAN]

espn's handling of this whole mess also really irks pbr....how 'bout some objective reporting for once? thats right pbr forgot we are talking about espn which  their investigative reporting is as good as (pick any rag newspaper/magazine) espn has lost so much credibility in the last 10 years...they had leach swinging from the gallows in the town square from minute 1.  all 3 of these peep's deserve each other and probably should throw espn in there as well...

Exactly, also, aside from the reporting bias, what was ESPN thinking about originally having Craig James telecast a game with his son playing? They NEEDED him to do the Alamo Bowl? I found it strange back in the day when Bob Griese would called some Michigan games with Brian Griese at QB, just plain stupid, no way that it works.

It was kinda funny hearing Bob Griese talk about "that Brian Griese" when he was playing for Michigan.  

SF has a customer in California, who has his son working for him too.  He refers to his dad as "Bob" and not dad --- makes SF chuckle a bit.

[Frank Rossi]

I heard that the 'closet' was the size of a  1 car garage.  82 has a 1 car garage and Mrs 82 has threatened to relegate 82 to it many times.  Mrs 82 should take heed of what happened to Mr. Leach.

82 would note that the 1 car garage is not small enough to warrant the firing that Leach got.  Craig James is a biatch.  Wasnt it rumored that he was doing coke the night before the '86 Super 'Blowout' that his Patriots got whacked in?  Anyone recall that?  82 seems to remember his rushing stats to be something like 13 carries for minus 8 yards???

You're confusing his confinement spaces, I think.  The original shed was the one-car garage.  The electrical closet Leach wanted him to be placed into was smaller (the noise and size was why the trainer claimed he defied Leach's orders in that case).

[Frank Rossi]

espn's handling of this whole mess also really irks pbr....how 'bout some objective reporting for once? thats right pbr forgot we are talking about espn which  their investigative reporting is as good as (pick any rag newspaper/magazine) espn has lost so much credibility in the last 10 years...they had leach swinging from the gallows in the town square from minute 1.  all 3 of these peep's deserve each other and probably should throw espn in there as well...

Exactly, also, aside from the reporting bias, what was ESPN thinking about originally having Craig James telecast a game with his son playing? They NEEDED him to do the Alamo Bowl? I found it strange back in the day when Bob Griese would called some Michigan games with Brian Griese at QB, just plain stupid, no way that it works.

ESPN's talent lineups for bowls were in place in November (I remember reading how Brent and Kirk were going to be keeping a short schedule with just the two Pasadena games).  So I'm not sure which came first -- I'd wager that the Alamo Bowl assignment came before the teams' selection, though.

[Frank Rossi]

The whole issue I had with this whole Texas Tech thing is that Leech was initially supsended because of the incident, then Leech goes to the courts and then Texas Tech ends up firing him?  Maybe Frank can add something about this but it seems like Leech might have a case here now against Texas Tech.

Leach forced the school's hand, from the way I understood it.  Technically, the school could not suspend the coach in this fashion because of some clause in his contract that provided specific steps for suspension.  That's why Leach was seeking the injunction.  In order to prevent Leach from having a leg to stand on in court that day, the school had no other way to prevent him from coaching in the Alamo Bowl but to terminate him.  Was it the money or Leach's force play in the court that got him fired?  We'll never know for sure.  But to answer your question, the school needs to show that it had independent rationale for reprimanding Leach in the first place and had no other option but to fire him in order to prevent further damage.  I don't think he has good legal standing here since he did something that is against public policy in the first place (so whether or not contract law applies, public policy is an important consideration in a case like this where the harm to student-athletes could be prevented by removing him in the school's/courts' eyes).  Likely, we will see a settlement in the vicinity of $500,000 to just end this nightmare for both Leach and the school.  That's all Leach can really hope for here, reasonably.

[Knightstalker]

espn's handling of this whole mess also really irks pbr....how 'bout some objective reporting for once? thats right pbr forgot we are talking about espn which  their investigative reporting is as good as (pick any rag newspaper/magazine) espn has lost so much credibility in the last 10 years...they had leach swinging from the gallows in the town square from minute 1.  all 3 of these peep's deserve each other and probably should throw espn in there as well...

Exactly, also, aside from the reporting bias, what was ESPN thinking about originally having Craig James telecast a game with his son playing? They NEEDED him to do the Alamo Bowl? I found it strange back in the day when Bob Griese would called some Michigan games with Brian Griese at QB, just plain stupid, no way that it works.

Actually it did work with Bob Griese doing Michigan games while Brian was the QB.  Bob was very critical of Brian several times and was always professional in calling the games.  KS remembers when Michigan won the National Title and Griese called the game and was very professional up til the final whistle.  He then said to Keith Jackson, time for me to be a Dad, that is when Bob almost broke down while speaking of how proud he was of his son.

[labart96]

On the college front, TGP is miffed his other alma mater (TGP did his grad school work at USC) effectively lost their 2010 basketball season due to OJ Mayo / Tim Floyd (and just as we won 8 in a row and started off 2-0 in the Pac10).

In TGP's eyes it should be the administration and/or former coaches/players that should be penalized, not the current program/student-athletes.   

Wouldn't it be great if the NCAA could penalize/levy fines (i.e. a cut in pay for the AD and others in the athletic department) for such infractions? 

And how about suing former players (i.e. Hold the Mayo) for damages suffered as a result of their NCAA violations?  Until a player like Mayo is slapped with a multi-million dollar lawsuit or the officials like Garrett in the administration are held accountable this type of thing is going to continue at some level in every major university.

That said TGP will defer to Consigliore Rossi with regards to the legal implications.  Regardless TGP feels bad for Senior SC players like Mike Gerrity who had a great shot at a Pac10 title and NCAA berth.

[PBR...]

On the college front, TGP is miffed his other alma mater (TGP did his grad school work at USC) effectively lost their 2010 basketball season due to OJ Mayo / Tim Floyd (and just as we won 8 in a row and started off 2-0 in the Pac10).

In TGP's eyes it should be the administration and/or former coaches/players that should be penalized, not the current program/student-athletes.   

Wouldn't it be great if the NCAA could penalize/levy fines (i.e. a cut in pay for the AD and others in the athletic department) for such infractions? 

And how about suing former players (i.e. Hold the Mayo) for damages suffered as a result of their NCAA violations?  Until a player like Mayo is slapped with a multi-million dollar lawsuit or the officials like Garrett in the administration are held accountable this type of thing is going to continue at some level in every major university.

That said TGP will defer to Consigliore Rossi with regards to the legal implications.  Regardless TGP feels bad for Senior SC players like Mike Gerrity who had a great shot at a Pac10 title and NCAA berth.

correctamundo tgp....pbr has always been a fan of the if a coach gets a program in some sort of penalty the penalties should follow him to whatever college he moves onto or if he chooses to sit out a year or two the charges against them would be reinstated to whatever college chose to employ him. to pbr its a disgrace college coaches can move around at will and face no penalty yet leave a smoldering ruin behind them for their previous employer and players to cleanup ....john calipari anyone? among many other coaches...

[Frank Rossi]

espn's handling of this whole mess also really irks pbr....how 'bout some objective reporting for once? thats right pbr forgot we are talking about espn which  their investigative reporting is as good as (pick any rag newspaper/magazine) espn has lost so much credibility in the last 10 years...they had leach swinging from the gallows in the town square from minute 1.  all 3 of these peep's deserve each other and probably should throw espn in there as well...

Exactly, also, aside from the reporting bias, what was ESPN thinking about originally having Craig James telecast a game with his son playing? They NEEDED him to do the Alamo Bowl? I found it strange back in the day when Bob Griese would called some Michigan games with Brian Griese at QB, just plain stupid, no way that it works.

Actually it did work with Bob Griese doing Michigan games while Brian was the QB.  Bob was very critical of Brian several times and was always professional in calling the games.  KS remembers when Michigan won the National Title and Griese called the game and was very professional up til the final whistle.  He then said to Keith Jackson, time for me to be a Dad, that is when Bob almost broke down while speaking of how proud he was of his son.

'twas a great moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZMqS83n_vw

Fast forward to 3:30 for that scene, KS.

[Frank Rossi]

For those of you running Windows 7, CNET reported on a way to create a "God Mode" by simply creating a New Folder on your desktop and renaming it:

"GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}" (Without the Quotes)

In doing so, pretty much EVERY option (date/time, mouse pointer types, etc.) for Windows resides in a single folder (better than even Control Panel).  Try it (the folder icon changes and the name is "God Mode." Very cool.

[Doid23]

Actually it did work with Bob Griese doing Michigan games while Brian was the QB.  Bob was very critical of Brian several times and was always professional in calling the games.  KS remembers when Michigan won the National Title and Griese called the game and was very professional up til the final whistle.  He then said to Keith Jackson, time for me to be a Dad, that is when Bob almost broke down while speaking of how proud he was of his son.

While Bob Griese handled it well as a journalist, and as a huge Michigan fan I loved the moment at the end of the Rose Bowl (to later be ruined by the crowning of Nebraska as co-champ), I still find it strange to hear a father criticize a son on national tv. And thankfully, Brian Griese didn't do anything to really make his father have to really jump on him, just the normal bad decisions, etc. It's just such a fine line to walk, between fawning over your son or going the other extreme on being too hard on him, that given a choice, I'd go with someone else. Keith Jackson and Griese were the #1 team for ABC at the time, so it made sense for them to do the Rose Bowl, but the issue was brought up at the time.  Not sure why you would choose Craig James to do the Alamo Bowl.

[Frank Rossi]

... Not sure why you would choose Craig James to do the Alamo Bowl.

Doid, I checked this out to make sure.

ESPN made its talent decisions on or around November 29, 2009:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2009-11-29-espn-abc-bowls_N.htm

Texas Tech accepted their Alamo Bowl invitation around December 5, 2009:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22texas+tech%22+accepted+alamo+bowl&scoring=n&hl=en&ned=us&sa=N&sugg=d&as_ldate=2009/12&as_hdate=2009/12&lnav=dt

[Doid23]

... Not sure why you would choose Craig James to do the Alamo Bowl.

Doid, I checked this out to make sure.

ESPN made its talent decisions on or around November 29, 2009:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2009-11-29-espn-abc-bowls_N.htm

Texas Tech accepted their Alamo Bowl invitation around December 5, 2009:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22texas+tech%22+accepted+alamo+bowl&scoring=n&hl=en&ned=us&sa=N&sugg=d&as_ldate=2009/12&as_hdate=2009/12&lnav=dt

I'm not saying that ESPN planned this, I'm saying that why wouldn't they view this as a possible conflict and switch the assignments? And while Texas Tech may have officially accepted their invite on December 5th, we all know how the bowl selection process works, and everyone was pretty comfortable that TTech as the #4 Big 12 team would get the Alamo invite (see Mandel's Nov 23rd projection here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/11/23/bowl.projections/index.html)

Really not a major issue, just adds to the whole mess.

[Frank Rossi]

... Not sure why you would choose Craig James to do the Alamo Bowl.

Doid, I checked this out to make sure.

ESPN made its talent decisions on or around November 29, 2009:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2009-11-29-espn-abc-bowls_N.htm

Texas Tech accepted their Alamo Bowl invitation around December 5, 2009:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22texas+tech%22+accepted+alamo+bowl&scoring=n&hl=en&ned=us&sa=N&sugg=d&as_ldate=2009/12&as_hdate=2009/12&lnav=dt

I'm not saying that ESPN planned this, I'm saying that why wouldn't they view this as a possible conflict and switch the assignments? And while Texas Tech may have officially accepted their invite on December 5th, we all know how the bowl selection process works, and everyone was pretty comfortable that TTech as the #4 Big 12 team would get the Alamo invite (see Mandel's Nov 23rd projection here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/11/23/bowl.projections/index.html)

Really not a major issue, just adds to the whole mess.

If Nebraska had beaten Texas in the Big XII Championship Game, it would've reshuffled bowls for the Big XII since Texas would've been a second BCS Bowl team, most likely.