After a controversy that had Bruce Feldman banned from Twitter and suspended (allegedly) from all appearances on all ESPN platforms, suddenly came word this morning that the embattled college football writer had left the Alleged Worldwide Leader and signed with CBS Sports to write for its website and appear across its platforms. It took many observers by surprise and had many writers and bloggers cheering this new development. In addition, Feldman went on the Dan Patrick Show for a very compelling interview.
Now let’s review what happened.
Earlier this summer, ESPN suspended (allegedly) Feldman for a book he wrote with former Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach in which the coach took network college football analyst Craig James to task saying he was responsible for Leach’s firing from Texas Tech. Feldman who knew that Leach was going to sue ESPN says he told his bosses and superiors about the issue. But when the book came out, ESPN took action to stop him from writing and appearing on TV and radio. In addition, it prevented him going on Twitter to talk about what happened. In addition, ESPN Ombudsman Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute came out with a weak defense of ESPN, not getting Feldman’s side of the story.
Well, after not hearing from him for almost a month, Feldman finally spoke out today and he’s on an all-out General William Tacumseh Sherman march through Atlanta-type march on ESPN.
I’ll provide some links and video. First, the video of Feldman’s spot with Dan Patrick and this comes courtesy of Timothy Burke at SportsGrid.
Tim also has the entire transcript of the interview.
Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch also caught up with Feldman on the matter.
Nando DiFino of the Wall Street Journal speaks with Bruce to get his side of the suspension (alleged).
ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys had an initial terse statement on Feldman’s move to CBS. Then as the story of Feldman going all-Wu Tang on ESPN, Soltys came out with another terse statement.
And here’s CBS’ announcement on Feldman’s hiring.
So the #freebruce hashtag on Twitter really grew to mean something today.
