If you’re not familiar with the story of U.S. Senate candidate Craig James, it really is quite a tale of scandal, intrigue and unbridled arrogance. Just to catch you up to speed with a dummy’s version – James was a talented running back and attended Southern Methodist University in the heyday of the program’s paid player scandal, and his NFL claim to fame was being ousted by Peyton Hillis as the last white running back to rush for 1,000 yards in one season.

After his short NFL career ended in 1988, James spent the next 20 years as a college football analyst, bouncing around networks, but always having a connection to ESPN, where he would eventually end up. In fact, he thinks so highly of his broadcasting skills that he founded the Craig James School of Broadcasting. And apparently the first lesson you can learn there is how to coddle your underperforming son and use your TV power as leverage in creating and promoting a scandal against a college football coach like Mike Leach.

In 2009, Leach allegedly forced Craig’s son, Adam, to sit in a dark electrical shed as punishment. Leach was eventually fired, and Adam later admitted that he was never forced to sit in a dark shed, was actually told not to sit in that shed, but he did so anyway because he thought it was “funny.” Alas, that is not a story that Craig will ever tell, because he stands by his version and believes that recaps like mine are pure propaganda in a vast conspiracy against his good name.

Or so he basically said in a recent interview (with his daughter) about his current 2012 U.S. Senate campaign, in which he is polling a whopping 4% among voters. Because if you want people to like you, go back to the ground zero of why people hate you.

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Here’s some video of Craig James’ kid getting thrown out of a Texas Tech practice (presumably) in an undated video, with former Tech coach Mike Leach taking bites out of his ass along the way.

I can’t even stand to watch you f!cking stumble around [with a] sh!tty f!cking effort like you f!cking accomplished something.

Oh heavens! Leach swore at one of his players! He wasn’t nice to him! That’s odd, because I thought that Leach was a football coach and not a cruise director, and that letting one idiot skate with half-assery could undermine his authority with the entire team. Whatever, dude. Yuk it up now while you can, because by the time we get a playoff in college football, it’ll be two-handed touch so that we don’t hurt any of these precious snowflakes. Or at least the douchebag coaches’ kids will be exempt from tackling somehow. Parents ruin everything. –Deadspin.

ASYLUM POLL: Should Mike Leach have been fired?

If you’re wondering how Mike Leach got himself fired from Texas Tech, stop and realize that this guy was his lawyer. That’s funny, I thought it was Spencer Hall, from 30 years into the future, coming back to warn his former self about the impending doom of undercapitalized media. But no, it is Ted Liggett, giving a tour of the two areas where Adam James was…uh…kept? after being diagnosed with a mild concussion. They’re not exactly luxurious, but whatever. Just be sure to credit @RockMNation with this zinger: “The Craig James University Death Toll [now stands at] two.” Indeed.

Vid from KCBD.com, via@BradKernan

UPDATE: SportsCenter has just reported that Mike Leach has been fired.

SECOND UPDATE: See the “sheds” in question here. Oh, and Leach is still fired.
Here’s the latest on this who Mike Leach/Adam James fiasco: Mike Leach filed a temporary restraining order, which would allow him to coach his team in the Alamo Bowl Saturday. Texas Tech suspended their coach after claims of mistreatment stemming from Adam James, son of some guy on ESPN.

SportsCenter has aired details of an email to AD Gerald Myers–from Tech’s wide receivers coach Lincoln Riley–citing James’ poor work ethic and sense of entitlement. But in fact there have been at least six emails leaked from former members of the Texas Tech football program, perhaps none more damaging to James’ credibility than former Tech quarterback and 2008 Heisman Trophy finalist Graham Harrell:

Adam was on the baseball team his true freshman year at Tech, before he ever joined the football team, and did not make it through the baseball season because of his selfish attitude. After a baseball game in which he felt like he did not get enough playing time, but the team still won twenty to one, he came into the locker room after the game and “pouted and threw a big fit” according another player on the baseball team.

A few weeks later in the middle of the season, he just stopped showing up to practices or game and quit because he was not happy about how he was being treated. One of my roommates was a baseball player on the team and many of my friends were a part of the team that witnessed all of this. These baseball players told me he was “spoiled and selfish” before he ever came to the football team. After quitting baseball he came out for football and his selfish attitude was very evident, as was his laziness. During off-season workouts he often would be caught skipping lifts in the weight room or finding ways to cut corners/get out of conditioning exercises.[..]

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Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach has been suspended from coaching at the Alamo Bowl after allegations that he locked one of his players in a closet after he suffered a concussion. A report released by the family of Tech wide receiver Adam James indicates that he was the player that suffered a head injury in a December 16th practice. Leach’s alleged treatment of James, son of ESPN analyst Craig James, seems a bit suspect.

• On Dec. 17, James said Leach told trainers to put him in “the darkest place you can find.” James was sent to an equipment shed near the practice field, where a member of the athletic staff checked on James to make sure he did not lean against anything or sit on the floor. James said Leach told him that if he came out he would be kicked off the team.

• When the team returned to practice two days later, on Dec. 19, James said Leach told trainers to “find the tightest, darkest place” for the player. James, in his street clothes, was put in an electrical closet inside the football stadium for hours, again monitored by a member of the athletic staff.

I’m a bit hesitant to bury Leach because (a) his side of the story on FOX Sports isn’t nearly as damning, (b) Leach says that James might have been faking the injury, which I wouldn’t put past the silver-spooned seed of a college football analyst, and (c) because all of this “new learning” talk about concussions seems to be a half-cocked effort into trying to make football “safe.” It won’t be long before other Division I coaches lock up their players in closets. Leach is an innovator like that.