SOONERGUYS Blog

Mike Leach’s firing as Texas Tech head coach has moved from a story about alleged mistreating of a player with a high profile dad, to a story about the ongoing acrimony between Leach and the university’s officials and one of its influential boosters.

Jim Sowell, a wealthy Dallas businessman and former Texas Tech regent, grew tired of the “Mike Leach Contract Soap Opera” during last year’s negotiations over a contract extension with the Red Raider coach, according to e-mails obtained in a public records request by the Dallas Morning News.

Central to the contract negotiations was the $800,000 “completion bonus” which Leach was to get this week had he not been fired. During last year’s negotiations Leach wanted some portion of the bonus vested a year in advance. Sowell adamantly opposed that and wrote Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance that Leach was not worth the money he was asking and could be fired after the the 2009 season.

The emails can be read here: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/12-09/1231newleach.pdf

“Leach has been able to do one thing no Tech coach has ever been able to do before – make me disgusted with the Tech football program” wrote Sowell in an email to Chancellor Hance – not words you would want from a multi-millionaire booster of the program.

The hardball contract negotiations set the backdrop for what occurred this week, when the university suspended Leach after ESPN analyst Craig James complained that his son, Adam, a player on the team, was confined to a stadium mechanical room when he complained of a concussion. Doctors had reportedly cleared him to practice.

The drama got thicker on Wednesday when James used his role as commentator on ESPN’s Holiday Bowl broadcast to tell viewers his family was a “victim” in the controversy.  Interestingly, James has been discussed in Texas Republican circles as a potential future U.S. Senate candidate. 

Meanwhile, a prominent Dallas public relations firm posted a video reportedly taken by Adam James when he was kept in the mechanical room on December 20. See video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZqvajnhZDU

The firm, Spaeth Communications, was the media mind behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group that torpedoed the John Kerry presidential campaign in 2004. It is unclear who hired the firm to release the Adam James video – the James family or Texas Tech or university financial boosters.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Hance told ESPN that both the alleged mistreatment of James and Leach’s “insubordination” combined to cause the university to fire him. He confirmed that Leach’s decision to seek a court order allowing him to coach in Saturday’s Alamo Bowl was another reason he was terminated.  A university lawyer gave Leach a termination letter moments before a court hearing on the restraining order request on Wednesday morning and one day before Leach was to earn the $800,000 bonus.

Terminating someone for seeking redress of grievances in court is considered a violation of public policy and unlawful, which in this case could jeopardize any legal right the university might have to end the contract. The Texas Tech administrator’s publicized statements to ESPN can be used as evidence against the university in an employment lawsuit which Leach is expected to bring against the university.

The earlier Jim Sowell email suggesting firing Leach after the 2009 season is likewise very damning for the university. It suggests there was a plan to later dismiss him and the alleged “cause” for termination that was subsequently presented by the James incident and cited as justification for Leach’s dismissal was a mere pretext.

The conclusion one may draw from the emails is the university was offended by Leach’s hardball contract negotiations last year and decided to find any possible reason not to fulfill their end of the contract that the administration had reluctantly accepted. That may violate the school’s legal obligation of good faith which exists in all contracts in which it enters. I suspect this will be the basis of Leach’s ensuing lawsuit against Texas Tech. It will not be an easy one for the university to defend, given the emails that have already been made public by the Dallas Morning News.

Most importantly, if discovery in the lawsuit shows Sowell got involved in the Adam James incident investigation and Leach’s subsequent firing, then Leach’s lawyers can cry conspiracy and  make it extremely difficult for Texas Tech to avoid a jury finding the school liable for breach of contract.