Craig Hemmens: Leach leveraged celebrity to help Trump

Last Saturday, Washington State University head football coach Mike Leach spoke at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign event in Spokane and endorsed him. In so doing, he emphasized that he was speaking in his capacity as a citizen and resident of the state of Washington and not as the Cougars football coach.

WSU responded that same day with a news release indicating it “supports the right of all our faculty and staff to express their views in their personal capacities on any issue as protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

The news release ended with the statement “[t]he opinions of one employee, however, do not in any way speak for the institution.”

WSU is absolutely right to support the constitutional rights of its employees and correct in asserting the opinions of an employee should not necessarily be attributed to the university. A WSU employee who endorses a political candidate does so in their role as a citizen, not a WSU employee. At least that is the theory.

But what is the reality when it comes to Leach’s endorsement of Trump? Why was he invited to speak at Trump’s Spokane rally? The answer is obvious. He was asked precisely because of his position as a WSU employee. Leach’s claim that his being the WSU head football coach had nothing to do with why he was invited is disingenuous at best and a complete denial of reality.

There are a number of WSU employees who support Trump (why, some are even friends of mine), but they were not invited to speak in Spokane. And there are other friends of Trump (as Leach acknowledges he considers himself to be) in the state who were not invited to speak in Spokane. Leach was invited to speak at the rally precisely because he is the WSU head football coach. As such, he is a public figure and his endorsement carries a weight that the endorsements of other WSU employees and friends of The Donald do not.

WSU’s statement affirming the right of its employees to express their political views is well-intentioned, but it ignores a crucial fact. Leach knew full well that by virtue of his position as WSU head football coach, his words would have a greater impact than those of virtually any other WSU employee. He made a conscious decision to take advantage of his position to advocate for a particular political ideology.

To suggest otherwise is to ignore the reality of celebrity and the fact that the WSU head football coach is a public figure. With this position comes a responsibility not to use the influence that comes with the position for personal political reasons.

It is a sad day to be a Coug.

Professor Craig Hemmens, J.D., Ph.D., is chair of the department of criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University in Pullman.