Mike Leach’s Lawyer On Finebaum: Craig James Called Texas Tech Staff From ESPN Booth

Mike Leach’s new lawyer stayed on the offensive this week, taking his tour to -- where else? -- Paul Finebaum’s show on Wednesday. In just about a week of work, Stephen Heninger, formerly lawyer for Mike Price and current lead attorney for Leach, has already sent out a press release accusing Craig James of making conflicting statements and called into The Finebaum Show. There’s probably not a better way to get started than this.

Heninger’s appearance on Finebaum was a lot of the same, with updates on the two cases Leach is pursuing and more on James’ role in the whole ordeal. Right now, the suit against Texas Tech is waiting for a sovereign immunity ruling, and the suit against ESPN, Spaeth Communications and James is waiting on the Texas Tech case. It’s all intertwined and all waiting on the complicated sovereign immunity issue.

As soon as the Texas Supreme Court rules on whether Texas Tech’s sovereign immunity will be upheld, Leach can pursue the rest of his lawsuits. No matter what happens, he’ll be free to continue pursuing James, ESPN and Spaeth, and his lawyer intends to do so right away.

Heninger said they have an “incredibly good case” against ESPN, James and Spaeth. He plans to re-depose Craig James, Adam James, Joe Schad and the ESPN players once they get the green light, following some kind of resolution on the sovereign immunity front.

And then there was this fun quote about Craig James and his role in pushing for Adam James’ playing time.

“Any of us that have coached little league are familiar with helicopter dads and the people that are railbirds. That was Craig James. He was calling coaches from the booth during games and telling them to put Adam in and to let him play, disrupting games even.”

This seems like an exercise in futility -- Leach carries a scrap of paper and a headset to the booth during games; is he really going to have a cell phone? -- but Heninger was adamant James was trying. He said the former ESPN analyst would leave voicemails with the assistant coaches, pressuring them to play Adam James more. But when Leach threatened to play those voicemails to the team, Adam James asked that he not -- a request Leach honored, Heninger said.

Heninger seems dead-set on pursuing both cases with gusto, so the next few months should be fun, especially as James tries to clear his name, perhaps resulting in him digging a deeper hole.

Full audio of Heninger’s appearance can be found here.