From a South African Newspaper Sport of abusing players - Times LIVE At Texas Tech, a highly ranked university that played in the Alamo Bowl, coach Mike Leach signed a multimillion-dollar extension to his contract last year. He met his own Alamo when he was fired just after Christmas in circumstances that make Camp Staaldraad look like a country picnic. One of his players suffered a con-cussion and (on his doctor's advice) refused to practise for Texas Tech's upcoming bowl game. Leach twice locked this youngster, Adam Jones, in darkened rooms - with guards posted outside - for the three-hour durations of two practices. The issues in dispute are whe-ther the boy was allowed to sit at any time and whether the second room was an electricity closet. The university first suspended and then fired Leach, but the now ex-coach insists it had nothing to do with his inappropriate behaviour and much to do with the university not wanting to pay him an $800000 bonus, due on December 31, and the rest of his huge contract. Of course, Leach's other reasons soon came out. Jones's father, who works for ESPN, had frequently phoned the coach, offering unwanted advice. Several of Leach's former players came to the coach's defence. One said Leach would never torture anyone, and claimed the worst mistreatment he'd witnessed was a player - whose grades were low - forced to sit on the field doing homework for three hours in freezing weather. What was chilling was that most commentators saw nothing wrong with coaches subjecting youngsters to such treatment. The seeds of Abu Ghraib are sown early.
This is Julia Beffon ( pronounced "buffoon"), she wrote the article. Julia has a flair for the dramtic and she is also stupid. Julia needs to stick to reporting on cricket and soccer, topics she may know something about and won't have to offer up awful analogies.
