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Eccentric Pirate, Offensive Innovator: Remembering the Genius of Mike Leach
Reflecting on the legacy and impact of one of modern college football’s most fascinating minds
Parity is a term that you hear in the sports world all the time. The idea is that any team could become a winner, where the roadblocks to becoming dominant and great can be overcome. This is the case in professional sports such as the NFL and NHL. But then other sports operate oppositely, college football is such a sport. College football, particularly at the highest level, is a sport of haves and have-nots. You can count on one hand the truly dominant schools in the sport. And these dominant institutions will often get the best players ensuring their continued success.
But sometimes, some players and coaches end up at smaller schools and they have a spark that puts the smallest of dents in the armor of the giants of the sport. Mike Leach was one of these people. A pirate in a sport dominated by entrenched monarchies. An innovator that took the football world by storm with his offense, and in the process changed the way the game was played. He was forever a plunderer of the modern football idea, and losing him is indeed a huge loss for the game of football as a whole.
