Bruce Feldman Suspended by ESPN for Assisting With Mike Leach’s Book

Just a day after the ESPY Awards celebrated all that ESPN stands for, the Worldwide Leader in Sports has an ugly mess on its hands.

SportsbyBrooks.com reported Thursday that ESPN The Magazine senior writer Bruce Feldman has been suspended indefinitely by ESPN and is not allowed to write on any ESPN platform or his Twitter account. The punishment comes after Feldman helped former Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach write his book — something for which Feldman reportedly received approval years ago.

Over the years, though, Leach's relationship with ESPN grew a bit rocky. Leach was accused of keeping Adam James locked in a shed during practice. Leach denied those claims. Where ESPN came into play was that James' father, Craig James, is a college football analyst for the network.

SportsbyBrooks reported that despite this, Feldman received proper approval for going forward with Leach's book.

Since the story broke, there's been a backlash against ESPN, particularly on Twitter, where fans and media members alike are canceling their ESPN The Magazine subscriptions and spreading the hashtag #freebruce.

Thus far, ESPN has declined to comment on the situation to several reporters, though if the social media surge continues, they could be forced to address it soon.

Photo of the day

What are you going to do to support Bruce Feldman?

Quote of the day

"I could just as easily have posed with my fishing poles but it obviously wouldn't be an interesting picture for the magazine."
–James Harrison, explaining why he took a photo with his guns instead of his fishing poles

Tweet of the day

Brian Wilson is a legend … in his own mind.

Video of the day

Pretty sure that's not supposed to happen.