Leach adds a few quotes to TV show, ‘Friday Night Lights’
Texas Tech football players get a bellyful of channeling their inner pirate and learning how to swing their swords. Mike Leach saw to that over the last decade and still does.
Now the fictional East Dillon High Lions might be exposed to the same techniques. In his cameo appearance on the hit show “Friday Night Lights,’’ Leach admonishes East Dillon coach Eric Taylor (actor Kyle Chandler) for “losing his inner pirate’’ and not “swinging his sword’’ with conviction.
Credit the dialogue partly to Leach and a little to the show’s writers.
“It was kind of scripted and then it was kind of, ‘Well, here’s the scenario; do what you want,’ ’’ Leach said. “’Include this, this, this and this.’ Actually, in the original (filming), there’s stuff about Napoleon, Daniel Boone, grizzly bears, raccoons, a bunch of stuff. We covered a lot of bases, and they picked from what they wanted.’’
The new season of “Friday Night Lights’’ is available only to DirecTV subscribers, and the reruns will appear on NBC sometime next year. Or it can be viewed on YouTube (hint: Type in “Mike Leach inner pirate.’’)
Leach taped the scene at a filling station outside Austin the night before Tech played Texas in September. In it, he pulls up to a gas pump and asks the customer at the next bay directions to Lubbock. Then there’s a glimmer of recognition as Leach realizes he’s pulled alongside the despondent coach of downtrodden East Dillon.
And he launches into a lecture.
“You’ve lost your inner pirate,’’ Leach tells the high school coach. “Have you ever heard, ‘Swing your sword?’ ’’
Leach demonstrates what a good sword swinging should look like, then scolds the coach for swinging his weakly. Taylor had been down in the dumps over being reassigned from powerful Dillon High to recently reopened East Dillon with no resources and no talent base.
“A lot of things happen for a reason,’’ Leach goes on in the scene. “We don’t know why God wants it that way, but you can’t make the best out of it ’til you get back your inner pirate. You might be the luckiest man alive and not even know it.’’
Message — and gasoline — dispensed, he climbs into his SUV and drives off.
The whole encounter takes less than 60 seconds.
If only Tech players got the microwaved version.
“We’ve definitely had that,’’ senior cornerback Jamar Wall said. “One meeting (this year), that’s all we did was talk about waving the sword one way or another. They just got a small taste of it. We got hours of it.’’
One visual left on the cutting-room floor: Leach said he grabbed a burrito out of Taylor’s hand and tossed it away to get the coach’s attention. Actually, Leach said in the filming they “loaded him up with burritos,’’ and Leach pulled one away from the coach during several takes. But that didn’t wind up in the episode.
Leach had no trouble speaking from the heart, because he said his and his team’s inner pirate had been tested this season.
“I think it’s always tested,’’ he said. “I think it’s tested in practice. I think it’s tested individually and team-wise. I think you’ve got to keep battling away. You don’t ever want there to be a level of resignation where (players think), ‘Oh well, that’s it.’
“If you don’t enjoy the battle, and if you don’t enjoy going from one point to the next, you’re kind of in the wrong business. Football’s just designed to have one obstacle after the next. That’s why it exists to begin with. There’s going to be ups and downs, but you’ve got to enjoy battling it every day, I think.’’
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“A lot of things happen for a reason,’’ Leach goes on in the scene. “We don’t know why God wants it that way, but you can’t make the best out of it ’til you get back your inner pirate. You might be the luckiest man alive and not even know it.’’
Wow. Better message than most on any given Sunday morning.
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Tech could have used that advise before the Houston game, and also durring halftime of a$m.
If Tech coach had his priorities set maybe the Austin game would have turned out differently?
Did the show pay for his trip to Austin for the shoot…Tech should request reimbursment.
Glad Leach had some fun, but when you get multi-millions, it becomes business!
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The new contract did require the HC to make more public appearances !!!
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Any way to watch Friday Night Lights on the web instead of just DirecTV?
Link?
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Or it can be viewed on YouTube (hint: Type in “Mike Leach inner pirate.’’)
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I loooooooooooooooooove Friday Night Lights! I am so glad Leach made a debut!!!
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Any more time in front of the camera and it would have been a steady stream of “yaknow, yaknow, yaknow! What a goofus!!!!!
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Maybe if the HC would work more with his team versus trying to be a celebrity, TTU would be at the top of the Big 12 South. Instead, he spends his time showing it is all about him. How about his visit to ESPN this past week? Successful BIG 12 coaches and teams that have OSU, OU and BU left would be in the office watching film and trying to figure out how to win. I guess this his is what TTU is getting used to. Celebrity status with below par programs.
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Hmmm….Maybe next year lets cut out the publicity until after the season or an off week. Shooting a b-grade tv spot the night before the biggest game of the season? Come on Leach,not a very good example of “having your head in the game.”
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Kyle Chandler is an acting genius. He keeps a “what a total nutcase” look on his face for the entire scene. And if they filmed several takes, he might actually be starting to believe it.
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jt, that might be why there were players out the night/morning before the a$m game!
Good for the coach is good for the players, NOT!
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Watched the video on You Tube. Vintage Leach, thats all I have to say.
ARRRRRRE ARRRRRE Matee
Wreckem Texas Tech
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Hey Freddie, I bet you a hundred dollars, that you couldn’t do any better at all especially if you had the same phobia with being in front of a camera, as Mike Leach does.
Big 12, none of the other schools coaches had a week off to have the opportunity and honor to be a part of something as great as representing their University and team Like Mike Leach did. That wasn’t all he was in the middle of doing either. For your information, Leach and all of his coaches were out in the recruiting field the day after the ESPN filming. Thats what college coaches do on their week off other than spending a day with their famlies.
Had Mac Brown been asked to do the show on his week off, you better believe that he would do it in a heart beat because not only would he be given the chance to exploit not just himself, but his team and their University at the same time, and thats not all of it either sonny boy. They get paid very handsomely to do it as well. All in one day then its on the recruiting job 100%.
I am a firm believer in what Mike Leach is trying to say about the Inner Pirate. It can be the Inner anything you want it to be, but its all about your Inner You that dwells deep inside of you that should be your driving force. When you play in a game of any kind, you play to win, not give up and quit just because the score is not in your favor. Its the very same thing in your normal boring little life. Never ever allow your thoughts to take over when the going gets tough. Instead keep following your heart in the matter to not give up but keep trudging on regaurdless how tough it is, and no matter what the score is. Just don’t be a quiter in anything you try to do in life, and though you may lose, so what. But you or no one else can say that you didn’t give it your all in trying to succeed what ever your goal was.
And thats all I have to say about that, and as always, WRECK’EM TECH and BEAT OSU!
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Question: Where was the double T on the shirt or the truck for that matter?
Glad he corrected that on the ESPN set!
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