Goodbye to Mike Leach and the Real Football Coaches

Wed, Dec 30, 2009

Let’s see. Texas Tech officials fired Mike Leach on Wednesday for allegedly banishing one of his players with a concussion to what was described as “small, dark” spaces during a practice. Not only that, this otherwise popular football coach was due an $800,000 bonus by the university on New Year’s Eve. He is disputing the charges, by the way, along with others who strongly defend whatever he did.

Yeah, well. This is about to get uglier, especially since Leach’s lawyer already was talking more about lawsuits than shoulder pads long before the Red Raiders prepared to play Saturday in the Alamo Bowl.

To paraphrase an old saying, there is the coach’s side, there is the player’s side, and then there is the truth. Still, no matter what really is the deal here surrounding Leach’s treatment of wide receiver Adam James earlier this month and even before that, this applies: if you’re anything close to an old-school college football coach these days, you might consider joining the Marines or something.

Back then, kicking, punching, spitting, grabbing and cursing were acceptable — and I’m not talking about you against your opponent, but your coaches against you. You can’t coach like that anymore. It’s a shame, but you just can’t. That’s because not everybody is me, who had a Steve Klonne as my first high school football coach in Cincinnati during the end of the Neanderthal days. Back then, kicking, punching, spitting, grabbing and cursing were acceptable — and I’m not talking about you against your opponent, but your coaches against you.

Neither is everybody Greg Tyree, now a 27-year-old sales and marketing analyst in Atlanta after he spent the early part of the decade as a linebacker and defensive end at Kansas under Mark Mangino, supposedly a modern-day Klonne.

That is, if you believe several Kansas players who claimed Mangino whipped folks to death with his tongue.

“All I know is that Mangino was very helpful to me during my tenure at Kansas, although there were times when it was kind …