Shooting down the walls of heartache (bang bang), Craig James is a warrior

And a spiritual one at that.
Speaking at a Dallas church last month, ESPN college football analyst Craig James spoke emotionally of the “spiritual war” he and his family have been subjected to ever since the controversial ouster of Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach, which, among other reasons, was likely due to the allegations that Leach kept James’ son, Adam, locked in an “electrical closet” after suffering a concussion.
Of course, James insists that he took the high road in all of this, but some believe the spiritual war the James family has been experiencing was due more to the elder James’ unhappiness with his son’s playing time and less about the alleged mistreatment. Reports have been emerging which indicate that Craig James aggressively campaigned for Leach’s dismissal, going so far as writing a letter to Texas Tech’s chancellor and leaving voice mails for assistant coaches accusing them, in the words of the Texas Tech Director of Football Operations, of “screwing my kid.” James also asserted in a voice mail left for an assistant coach that his son was “the best player at the wide receiver position. If you’ve got the balls to call me back, and I don’t think you do, call me back.’”
What a tangled web is woven when accusations of player mistreatment intersects with the motivations of a high profile parent who might have used his status as a national, well-known media member to railroad a coach in order to exact revenge due to a perceived slight to his son.
Video of James’ “spiritual war” pronouncement after the jump.

As the story developed, conflicting testimony began to surface from people involved in the alleged incident about what really occurred between Texas Tech trainers and Adam James on that day.
Undeterred, James spoke of the hardships experienced by his family. Some of the comments made by James in the below video (via SPORTSbyBROOKS):

“My son was being treated in an unfair, unimaginable, and unthinkable manner. We filed a complaint with the university; private, hoping to quietly protect Adam to stop the insanity that was being done to him. Not once, but twice.

“The lies, the accusations, the death threats, police sitting outside our home. The bounty on our lives. The insanity that comes from someone’s actions, are crazy.

“(Craig’s son) Adam (James) and my footprints, and what we’ve done in life when we hit the wall we can look around and our character, our honesty and our integrity are in place.

“Now the other side of the equation, the party that’s accusing, I wonder what their beach looks like?

“I have felt strongly that we have been in a spirtual [sic] war for the past four months. Our faith, our christian family has sustained us. … It’s important to lead a godly life.”

And the video (skip ahead to the 14:00 mark):

As mentioned above, the James family, in particular Craig, were not innocent victims of a spiritual war but instead were instigating combatants in a crusade against a coach who they believed wasn’t giving their golden boy son preferential treatment, due to Craig James’ celebrity status. When one considers that James threatened to sue the university on December 20th if Leach was not investigated and that the Texas Tech Chancellor testified under oath during a deposition that James “personally wanted Leach fired,” it appears the “private” nature James claims he went about his business was instead a very public campaign which had all the appearances of a personal vendetta. And with each successive development, the perception that Craig and Adam James were without fault in this sordid tale becomes less and less apparent.
Yet Craig James soldiers on, a casualty of a spiritual war not of his waging.
At least in his mind that’s how the story goes.
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Video: Craig James In “Spiritual War” With Leach [SPORTSbyBROOKS]
Craig James gets emotional during speech at Dallas Church [KCBD]
Could Voicemail Recordings Hurt James At ESPN? [SPORTSbyBROOKS]
Trainer says James was monitored [ESPN]
Tech attorneys: Craig James threatened to sue [Red Raiders]