ESPN Suspends College Football Writer Bruce Feldman

A Win for the Little Guys

Thursday HogManInLA was made aware of a breaking story about the suspension of Bruce Feldman, a college football writer for ESPN, by one of our astute channels of information (Thank you TS). For those of you unfamiliar with the Bruce Feldman story, he is the collaborating writer with Mike Leach, former Texas Tech Red Raiders head football coach, for Leach’s book Swing Your Sword.

Swing Your Sword is about Mike Leach and the more controversial part of the book is about Leach’s dismissal as the head football coach over an incident with Craig James’ son, Adam James. Craig James is a former SMU and New England Patriots running back and current college football analyst for ESPN. Swing Your Sword reportedly does not shed a very positive light on ESPN and Craig James over this highly publicized firing. Craig James was upset with the treatment his son supposedly received after complications with a concussion in December of 2009 as Texas Tech was preparing to play Michigan State in the 2010 Alamo Bowl. Adam James claims Leach made James sit in a darkened garage near the Red Raiders practice facility because of his concussed state. Why this is a big deal is still baffling. Leach claims he ordered Adams “out of the light” and the training staff placed Adam in the garage or electrical closet area.

Leach claims that Craig James constantly asked for more playing time for his child and used this opportunity to use his influence through ESPN and Texas Tech administrators to have Leach fired. According to Leach, Adam James was “lazy and had an air of self entitlement” thus the reason he never received more playing time. Leach also claimed that Texas Tech fired him so they would not have to pay a tenure bonus of $800,000 and his contracted salary of $1.7 million. Leach filed a wrongful termination suit and other claims against Texas Tech University in January of 2010. To date, all of Leach’s legal filings have been thrown out by Texas circuit judges or found to have no merit other than his breech of contract suit.

On Thursday Feldman was reportedly suspended for his involvement in Swing Your Sword. An immediate outcry of support ensued for Feldman over the internet and on Twitter. ESPN has since backtracked their suspension of Feldman and now say that they never suspended Feldman nor threatened his job with ESPN. Early reports cited ESPN questioning Feldman’s involvement with the book and why he did not get permission from ESPN. Feldman was quick to let ESPN and the world know that he did in fact get permission to write the book and received approval from ESPN Books executive Neil Fine in writing.

Just to Clarify

Mike Leach and Craig James may be two people one would never want to invite to a dinner party, unless you really wanted to hear either one dominate the conversation about their life all night. Leach is outspoken and often less than PC with his verbiage. Craig James was a part of the famed “Pony Express” at SMU which ended up being the downfall of a once prominent football program. James is an average at best college football commentator while Leach was a brash offensive genius that put Texas Tech football back on the map. Leach may have handled Adam James poorly, who knows to this point as it’s a “he said, she said” scenario, but Craig James does seem like the meddling type thus it’s hard to feel sorry for the James family over this incident. James’ son was not put in jeopardy nor was his life threatened in anyway. Craig James seems to be an overbearing father that used his influence to upend a coach that more than likely would have upended his own career by saying the wrong thing at some point. But let the “village mouth” undue himself.

For years ESPN has tried to wield the public’s interest in sports by the television contracts they owned the rights to. Rarely does ESPN give a seemingly true account of the abilities of different college football or basketball teams without the influence of their television ratings; see Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Oklahoma football for most of the 2000’s and the Big East and ACC’s records in the NCAA Tournament. With the recent release of the book Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN public opinion of ESPN has dropped even more and in different ways. Lucky for ESPN sports fans have little other options to receive some sort of sports information other than online articles.

With Bruce Feldman, ESPN showed that they think they are above reproach. The keyboard proved to be mightier than the corporate machine this time around; ESPN Vice President and Director of News Vince Doria, ESPN The Magazine Editor-in-Chief and ESPN Books Editorial Director Gary Hoenig, and ESPN.com Editor-in-Chief Pat Stiegman were the individuals responsible for Feldman’s suspension via a conference phone call. May this serve as a reminder that collectively we can have a voice in what’s right or what’s wrong with actions within in our country… sports or otherwise. One win for the little guys. 

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