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Joe Wickline & Oklahoma State Legal Battle - What Constitutes Play-Calling Duties?

Joe Wickline couldn't leave Stillwater without paying a penalty unless he got "play calling duties" as an OC in college or the NFL. He left. Now OSU wants a buyout. We ain't paying!

Here's the relevant document:

My humble, non-legal trained thoughts (which you should probably disregard until the real lawyers weigh in below) -

- OSU had some bad lawyerin' and contract writing.  I could have done a better job and my legal arguments are similar to Otter's in Animal House when he confronts the Greek Council.  Meeting the "play-calling" standard has no associated metrics. Is one play call sufficient?  How about 10 a game?  What if he's tasked with all running game play calls?  And Wickline is the titular offensive coordinator.  I can assure you that Joe has called some plays.  Limiting someone's career options with a poorly conceived contract means OSU can go pound rocks.

- From a non-legal, look people in the eye, handshake, my word is my bond, you know what we meant by that standard, it's pretty clear what the agreement was and it's also pretty clear that Watson has the lion's share of play calling duties.  So OSU has a (incoherent) grievance.  If your contractor did this to you, you'd be plenty pissed.

- The college football world is a business and as such, "You know what we meant" probably isn't a very good piece of lawyering.

- Joe sued first so that the trial will be in Travis County.  OSU is countersuing.  I bet Wickline switches his legal team's positions four times before his deposition.  "We didn't think using our law clerk as the trial attorney would work, but wow he's really good at it!  And benching the firm's partners was long overdue!"

Paying off his contract buyout is small potatoes to our AD, but the ability to antagonize OSU and get some amusing T Boone Pickens quotes out of it is well worth it.