Texas Tech Football Fans Justified In Anger Over Tuberville On Broadcast

Tommy Tuberville will be the color analyst for this weekend’s Texas Tech football game at Houston and naturally, many fans are not happy about it.

During the weather delay prior to the Texas Tech and Arizona State game last week, I tweeted a picture of two rainbows that appeared over Lubbock.  I captioned the tweet with a remark about how the rainbows were a sign from God that he would never curse Texas Tech with Tommy Tuberville again.

Just two days later, I learned how much God loves a good joke.  That is because the former Texas Tech football head coach and most hated man in Lubbock is once again being forced into our lives.  Tuberville is going to be part of the broadcast team for this week’s game versus Houston and many fans are not happy.

It is hard to fathom that the executives at ESPN are ignorant enough to be unaware of the animosity between Red Raider fans and Tuberville.  After all, that wound was reopened just this summer when Tuberville referred to Lubbock as “Iraq” on an nationally syndicated radio show.

Later, Tuberville called a weekend radio show in Lubbock to apologize but the damage had been done.  It was no secret that during his time as head coach at Texas Tech, Tuberville was unhappy.  His constant complaints about the wind, the lack of an indoor practice facility and even the lingering animosity that divided the fan base following Mike Leach’s firing.

However, for him to go on a national radio show and compare Lubbock to a war-torn nation that is being besieged by militant terrorist groups was unnecessary and unsettling to those of us that call Lubbock home.

This remark reinforced the negative notion that most Texas Tech football fans already held about Tuberville who infamously left a dinner with recruits at a local steak house to field a call and ultimately accept a job offer from Cincinnati.

Thus, it stands to reason that Texas Tech fans would be angry over having to listen to Tuberville again this weekend.  How are Red Raiders to believe than anything he says will be sincere or honest, especially any positive remarks about Tech or Lubbock?

Some are arguing that upset fans should just move on and are silly for holding a grudge for over four years.  After all, most Texas tech fans were happy that Tuberville left and the fact that he took another job saved the school money on his contract and allowed Tech to land prodigal son Kliff Kingsbury as his replacement.

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Those points are valid but just because fans are glad to be rid of Tuberville doesn’t mean that we are simply able to act as if his time with the program didn’t have any impact.  In fact, Tuberville took a top-25 program and ran it into the ground in just three seasons leaving Kingsbury to try to reassemble something useful from the rubble.

This situation is akin to someone that has been divorced.  While they are thrilled to have their former spouse out of their lives, they would be highly upset if their ex showed up out of the blue to officiate their next wedding.

Now, imagine if that ex-wife had just recently gone on social media to demean you as a person for no reason.  It is hard to fathom anyone being able to endure such a situation with a smile but that is the position Texas Tech fans have been placed in by ESPN.  What ESPN is doing Saturday is akin to having Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter emcee the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Tuberville has gone on record to say that this weekend will not be awkward for him and that he looks at the situation through a professional lens.  Of course it won’t be awkward for him.  The anger and offense almost never impacts the offender but rather sticks with the offended.

Also, the game is taking place in Houston, not Iraq…rather Siberia…or should I say, Lubbock so Tuberville will be sheltered from the full force of the outrage he has caused.

Kingsbury was asked about the issue earlier this week and he handled the question as well as anyone associated with Texas Tech could be expected.

And while the Texas Tech head coach was likely pandering a bit to his constituency, there is a modicum of honesty in his reaction.  He loves Lubbock and Texas Tech so to have to interact with a man that blatantly spoke out against both on more than one occasion is not going to be fun for Kingsbury.

However, once the game starts, the broadcast will be far from Kingsbury’s mind.  Unfortunately, that is not the case for fans watching on television.

Most will fight through the situation and put up with Tuberville for 3 hours.  Others, myself included, will try to sink the television and radio broadcast feeds (though to be honest, I do that for every away game because I love Brian Jensen and John Harris on the Red Raider Sports Network).

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But no matter how we chose to deal with this aggravating situation, the silver lining for all is that Tuberville is back in our lives for just a few hours.  By Saturday evening, all traces of him will be gone, absorbed by time like rain puddles left in the wake of a West Texas thunderstorm.  And to celebrate what will hopefully be another Texas Tech victory, everyone in Lubbock should go out to dinner at their favorite steak house. Just don’t skip out on your guests in the middle of the meal.