World Wide Leader in Creepy

ESPN's infernal hype machine completely went off the tracks this week involving a situation at Texas Tech University. The son of one of their college football commentators Craig James apparently did not like his isolation in a dark room following a concussion. Without getting into whether the action was proper or not (it almost certainly wasn't [locking up in a shed for 3 hours] but I know far far worse things happen by football coaches regularly) -- it's never really been discussed in detail so who the fuck knows?

But the University and one of their commentators pretty much gave ESPN a forum to bash the head coach and make it easier for the University, bruised from contract negotiations last year, to get said Head Coach fired for 'unethical conduct'. Same school, same athletic director that hired Bobby "I put the kid in a chokehold to teach him a lesson" Knight just a few years ago.

When the Head Coach was hired a decade ago, Texas Tech was a doormat in their conference and had an abysmal graduation rate among its football players. Now its a formidable power and it has, I believe, the top graduation rate in big-time college football.

Maybe something really bad did happen, but without offering details ESPN gave the father of the student a soap box to drop veiled hints without supporting information while interviewing his supporters within the institution that did the firing.

This is a LOT like having Mary Cheney use CNN to interview a Bush Administration official and call it proper journalism.

There's a whole lot of stink in this one somewhere.