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Sign on the bottom line
May 29, 2009UTEP football coach Mike Price has probably put his trouble at Alabama behind him after six years of watching its image get smaller and smaller in his personal rear-view mirror.
A trip to Pensacola and allegations of misconduct cost him his job with the Crimson Tide during spring practice. And it was easy for Alabama officials to lower the boom on him because he hadn't signed his contract yet.
Maybe the word didn't make it around the coaching circle because Price's hard lesson was apparently lost on former Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie.
Booted from Bluegrass Country after two sub-par seasons with the Wildcats, their fans and that huge sense of entitlement around Lexington, Gillispie fired back at the UK officials on his way out door with allegations of fraud and breach of contract.
The only problem was that Gillispie was working on a "memorandum of understanding" instead of an official contract. Reportedly, this was because of his own quibbling about the contract's language.
Oops.
Predictably, that exactly what UK's counter-suit hinges on.
From the Associated Press:
"UK contends that the (memorandum of understanding) is not an enforceable long-term contract of employment, and that it owes no damages to Gillispie, having paid him for each basketball season in which he coached," the lawsuit says.
Somewhere out in West Texas, Price is probably muttering to himself, "Gee, he really should have signed that contract when he had the chance."
Lesson learned: sign the freaking contract.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 2:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
