Love me some Leach
I’ve never hidden the fact that I love Mike Leach.
The reason: the Texas Tech coach speaks his mind.
The good news: he actually has something intelligent in there to talk about.
Leach is not only candid but also smart in what he has to say. Some coaches run their mouth because they have a platform, but nothing substantial comes out. Leach, on the other hand, is always coming up with something worth sitting up and paying attention.
His latest focused on the officiating crew during Tech’s game at Texas. Leach railed after the game Saturday about how the referee is an Austin resident. Perhaps it escaped Mike that there was a Lubbock resident on the crew, too. Perhaps it also escaped him that he wasn’t exactly complaining about the refs two years ago when Tech beat OU with a disputed last-second touchdown.
Sigh.
I never said the guy was perfect.
Anyway, Leach has sparked a debate about officiating, and I say it’s great. The Big 12 — and every conference — needs to look at its rules for officials. Why not do away with the practice of officials calling games involving teams where they live?
I know that similar rules exist for other situation. Richard Brown is a Big 12 football official. He’s usually in the umpire spot. His daughter, Brittney, played basketball until last season at OU, and while she was a Sooner, he did not call an OU football game.
Could he have been fair in a game involving the Sooners?
I have no doubt.
But you don’t want to give off even a sense of impropriety. Why risk it? Why chance it?
The same can be said of having officials from Big 12 cities call games involving those teams. Eliminating seems a lot easier than answering questions about the officials’ validity.
I’m not saying that the guys who called Saturday’s Tech-Texas game had it in for the Red Raiders. My father was a long time basketball referee, and I know from watching him that officials have too much pride, too much care for the integrity of the game to willfully try to screw up a call.
Keeping officials from a conference city from calling a game involving their hometown team is an easy fix. Being a referee is a hard enough job, though. Why not make it a little easier on these guys by taking out any hint of funny business?
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Gundy was absolutely right to rip you the way he did. The cardinal rule of sports writing: you don’t openly criticize or ridicule an amateur athlete without a legitimate reason.
What was your reason, Jenni? I’d love to hear it. Was it to get a pretty front page story? Or to up readership? To cause a stir? What was it? I’d love to hear an explanation.