GaryPinC

Yea, jury selections will be tough down there, but I'd recommend reading Leach's deposition on the doubletnation link I posted above. Texas Tech was just going to slap him on the wrist and not even fine him but Leach was having nothing of that. He's a paranoid egomaniac and if he were more reasonably minded would still be coaching them. I think TT would have backed him up if he had just done what they were asking. In the end, I think a jury will see through his smoke and mirrors to the real root of the conflict.

That we can certainly agree on, and your bombastic replies certainly illuminate the hypocrisy of your self-perceived wisdom and maturity. Oh, here's the ESPN story on Leach admitting to telling the trainer to put James in the shed : http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4989556 quote: The school released a profanity-laden sentence Grigg said had been Leach's instruction to trainer Steve Pincock at that time, and that Leach admitted to saying in his sworn testimony Friday. Oh, and here's a link to most of the depositions from March: http://www.doubletnation.com/2010/5/6/1460333/leach-and-james-fire-back-world Leach's deposition is pretty interesting. It seemed to me that TT simply wanted Leach to sign the procedural letter and write some type of "regret the situation" letter to the James family to close the incident but Leach refused. That guy has some real conspiracy issues but no surprises there. At the end it discusses his contract which at the time of firing TT still owes him 400k per year (1.2 M tot) and possibly the 800k bonus which it sounds like TT intends to honor. It also supports my assertion on why Grigg wants to settle. TT will pay 1.2-2.0 million regardless of the final outcome. If Leach can stick a wrongful termination on them then maybe they pay more.

Wow, take a break for the holiday and I miss all this. First off, don't call me son. And I'm sorry to inform you that despite your delusions there is no deep end to kiddie pools. Though you specialize in shoveling the same repetitive quotes over and over ad nauseam, it doesn't impress me nor I suspect many others. It simply gets tiring and I suspect that is your primary intent. As far as understanding facts and timelines, you also seem to lack proper understanding. This article I cited, now over 6 months old, was the last major decision involving the complaints of this lawsuit. In that article Mike Leach mostly got shown the door for 10 of his 11 charges (or whatever you want to call them). The only item left is whether or not he was legitimately fired for breaching his contract. Since then, oral arguments for appellate trial was set for October. Then Mike Leach decides to file lawsuit against ESPN and comm. company in Nov. while also releasing depositions of Adam James and draft letter from TT pres. fining him $60,000 for the incident. It appears to me that Leach is attempting to argue that the Craig James helped force his firing (else he simply would have been fined) and that Adam James' testimony has significant inconsistancies (which it does because I did read it). The $60,000 fine was the "true" action but James and others forced the firing instead. Allow me to quote another historical article from the spring. Article: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=10651373 quote: An attorney for the school, Dan Perkins, said Tech wanted to resolve the complaint brought by the player's father, former NFL player Craig James. He said Tech officials tried to get Leach to agree to a list of how players needed to be treated when injured and to have him write an apology letter. "Why give him the opportunity if the goal is to fire him?" Perkins argued. "Who could have known that Mike Leach would put Adam James in a shed?" I would also remind you that Steve Pinncock the trainer was ordered by Leach to lock James in the equipment shed and that Leach referred to Adam James in an expletive, vindictive ridden statement. Leach also agreed with these statements in his deposition. There are historical AP articles over at ESPN which confirm this. So to summarize: -Leach has admitted he punished and vindictively spoke about Adam James to the trainer Steve Pinncock -Leach has had most of his arguments thrown out of court already -While there are significant holes in Adam James's story the fact that Leach enacted a vindictive, inappropriate punishment for the type of injury seems to be a fact, as confirmed by Leach -Texas Tech gave Leach the opportunity to sign a generalized letter about how he should treat his injured players and a chance to write an apology to James and Leach refused. Leach refused to sign and apologize so he was fired. Leach's main contentions lately fixate on Adam James' testimony and the $60,000 draft letter. Texas Tech's letter/apology invalidates the draft letter, the establishment of Leach's punishment and the vindictiveness renders Adam James' deposition almost irrelevant to this central issue. I also find it interesting that his appeal isn't even finished yet and Leach is turning his attention to trying to blame ESPN. In true lawyer fashion, it's more about following the money than clearing his name. If all this fails, I'd guess the James family is next up. Kind of makes me wonder how that appeals process is going.... Lastly, I find it hilarious that you think Dicky Grigg is afraid he'll lose this in court. Seriously, what lawyer, if he feared he would lose in court would talk about settling it in public? You settle those as quietly as possible, because if you can't than it would certainly look bad in court. In my opinion Dicky Grigg has no fear of losing and is publicly offering to settle because the lawsuit at this point is a waste of time and legal fees for Texas Tech. Well, we'll see.... Good luck Mike Leach.

http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2010-06-01/sowder-rules-leach-sovereign-immunity So Leach's "conspiracy theory" has been shot down, only thing left is to determine if Tech's actions violate the terms of his contract. Good luck with that, Mike. Sounds like Leach's case is slipping through his fingers and he's grasping at straws. Considering that in the depositions, Leach's lawyers refer to "the closet" when questioning Adam James, good luck winning that one over ESPN. From the Senator's linked article: “Mike Leach wants his name cleared,” Liggett said Wednesday. “This is Mike Leach’s idea, and this is Mike Leach insisting on the world hearing the truth.” (Liggett discussing Leach suing ESPN) Sounds like Leach will paying to do this, not on contingency. This whole thing reeks of an ego-maniac desperately avoiding responsibility for his own actions.

Me too.

Thanks for the great summary. I find that when an NFL player discusses his own injury being less than 100%, it's affecting his play on the field. Given the severity of last year's injury, I think the real Eric Wood will re-emerge next year.

If you believe it was a Wilson conspiracy, that's fine. I just don't understand why some folks find it so hard to believe that Gailey was willing to give Edwards another chance under new tutelage? Chan looked at Edwards' game films, couldn't distinguish Trent's ineptitude from Jauron's and decided to wipe the slate clean for Trent. Trent came in, did well in OTA's, training camp, and preseason. In preseason, I thought he looked a lot more confident and was making more throws downfield. Regular season came and same old Trent. Gailey coached him up for a couple weeks (he has had success with marginal Qb's in the past) realized Trent wasn't going to change and cut him promptly. I thought Gailey did a good job of making sure it wasn't a mistake to let Trent go. Why does there have to be more to it than this?

I've learned in my years of following football that when a team brings in a new coaching staff it usually takes at least half a season for the players to get comfortable with the offensive and defensive schemes so they can not think so much and "play fast." Usually the defense tends to settle in a couple games before the midway point and the offense a couple games after the midway point, but if you've got an experienced O-line, or a QB like Fitz who can help determine assignments it helps the process. When you've got a defensive coordinator who doesn't settle on a scheme until a few weeks into the season, well, that's where the Bills D is now. Win or lose (but hopefully wins) it should be fun watching the talent develop on this "talentless" roster.

I'd prefer to see Merriman at that spot, but who knows if he ever steps on the playing field for us.

After this weekend, Cleveland may be more beatable for Buffalo. Their defense is really missing Fujita at ILB, Steinbach's (LG) gimpy ankle is really affecting his play and Womack being out is hurting the other side of their OL. Now Colt McCoy's got an ankle sprain and their young receiving corps just isn't developing yet. Cribbs being out really hurts them too. Some or many of these guys will be back for the Buffalo game, nobody's saying much about Fujita and I suspect his injury will keep him down most of the remaining season. As for Fitz, the coaches and team believe in him. We'll see how it plays out at year's end.

+1 Beat me to it, he should give Lee some pointers. It was great to see a receiver taking out DB's on a running play. I hope he gets more playing time.

Cleveland's not very possible. They are strong on both sides of the ball, Peyton Hillis is a strong runner and their TE's are very involved in the offense, everything our defense is weak at. Cleve's starting to shake off that losing mentality and believe in themselves. They're my dark horse to make a run and get in as a wildcard. Oh yea, Colt McCoy looks like the accurate version of Fitzy too. You know, any given Sunday..., but I'd be very surprised if Buff can pull it off on Cleve. Hope they can though...

One thing's for sure: the last 7 should be a whole lot more fun than the first 7, especially since both defense and offense are getting comfortable in their schemes and starting to "play fast".

Wow, Maybin sounds delusional. I can only hope Merrimen sets him straight and Maybin takes it to heart.

Ok, thanks. I'll try to reupload later, otherwise I'll figure something else out. No biggie, I do like the speed of the new server.

I clicked on the link, got internal server error. Went up to the URL, changed # to 10350 (right after "av-") and it says web page not found. Still had my avatar pic on my computer and tried to upload but says it's too large. Previously, I thought the image was automatically resized upon upload. Appreciate some help on which/what to do next. Thanks a lot.

Great article, thanks for posting this.

Better yet, look at Cleveland. Even at the beginning of the year it was obvious they could compete with anybody but found a way to lose. Now they've cast off that losing mentality and the players believe they're a good team. And they are. Sadly, I could see Luck staying in school if the Bills draft first but deciding to declare if the Cowboys get the first pick. We'll see.

I think Fitz could cut into his interceptions if he put a little more arc on the ball for intermediate post-route type plays over the middle. It's one thing to zip the ball in there on an out route, but to do it when your receiver is running 15 yds downfield through the middle is asking for deflections/INTs. In my mind at least part of his accuracy problems are due to the fact that he's about to get creamed and doesn't get to make a perfect throw on the ball. He should get at least 3 more games before they even consider working Brohm in. I like Ryan and he deserves more than his fair chance to prove himself, especially as the O-line continues to gain confidence. He's already impressed me in many ways, let's see if he can step up his game as he continues in the starter role. I think the final answer will be clear if we remain patient till the end of the season.

Agree completely and just wanted to add that said fuktard also decided to shift back to the 4-3 instead of sticking with one defensive plan. So as bad as our talent is on defense, they also spend time trying to figure out what they're supposed to be doing. Saw more than one play today where Puz was trying to get players lined up correctly.

Saw the game from the second quarter on and I agree he struggles with his accuracy at times. He also was crunched in a very small pocket or about to get nailed before he threw. He had little to no time today to set up and throw the midrange/long ball and he did a fantastic job of just getting the ball away and I think he gets some slack with the accuracy because of all this. A lot of other QB's would have taken a ton of sacks or throw-away passes today. With that being said, I realized what Fitzy's problem is that causes the INT's. He needs to put more arc on the ball for some of his intermediate post routes over the middle. Most of the time he does ok with arcing the sideline routes but he always throws a low, direct ball over the middle. That's fine for the slants and outs but any type of post pattern is just asking for a deflection/INT. He still gets at least 3 more games to show he can be the man in my book. If he's plateaued out, give Brohm a chance in the last 4-5 games. If Luck doesn't come out I'm ok with Fitzy till the team improves and we find a franchise QB.

Chicago's at 28, this must mean certain victory Sunday!

We've got so many holes to fill on this team, especially linebacker, here's a guy who's still young and has done some good things in the past. It is just wrong for the Bills NOT to take a chance on this guy. Cut him if he sucks, he may leave anyways but why not take a chance?

This whole thing is just shameful. Maybin's young and he may or may not be able to play in the NFL. Coaches haven't given up on him. I don't think much of his efforts to this point but to have a contest to call him the worst football player in the NFL and have the national media run with it is just wrong. The only reason it went national is because the Bills are such a laughing stock this was an opportunity to annoint a poster child. As a Bills fan I'm disgusted and it doesn't matter to me if Maybin never sees the field again. It reflects poorly on Buffalo and the Bills. Sullivan should do an apology for going too far on this.

There are a few other anecdotal things I can add about Jauron and his conservatism. You've got Schonert's comment about Jauron's "Pop Warner" offense after Schonert was fired. Jauron went through 3 offensive coordinators, 2 of them ex-QB's. When I watched the odd game for each of the different OC's, I thought I could see a difference in their style of attack between the 20's. Inside the redzone or when backed up near our goal line the playcalling seemed different, horribly conservative. Then there was all the timeouts we wasted down in or near the red zone. To me, that was Jauron and his OC debating about the playcalling, but I believe Jauron called the shots in the critical areas. Also, Trent's quotes about hearing different things from different coaches. I think this was Jauron's philosophical differences with his OC. Also, before Schonert and Van Pelt got hired people like Lee Evans and Jim Kelly had the odd quote that they liked what each of these OC's was saying they would do with the playcalling. But once these guys got the position there offense wasn't very aggressive. Finally, at one point last year when people were being critical of Edward's checkdowns he had a quote saying that's the way he'd been coached. Sadly, I don't think anyone will ever set the record straight about what really went on there, so we're left to speculate. And when Gailey proved Trent was incompetent I thought the same thing as you, maybe Jauron wasn't that bad a coach. I really don't know but for all the reasons I've posted I think Jauron's incompetence still largely overshadows Trent's (though slightly less). I respect your opinion on the matter though and thought I'd share mine. Thanks for the great discussion!