There are dozens of reasons now -- hell, maybe hundreds at this point, approaching a critical mass bordering on backlash -- to love Mike Leach above all other coaches who have ever lived. You know, the pirates, the weather, the dating advice, the hilariously unorthodox discipline, etc. You know all of that. Plus the winning, which you also know.

But this weekend, the Cap'n upped his Likability Quotient™ to unheard-of levels with one very simple, straightforward and yet unheard-of act: He ripped another coach. Ripped him wide open.

Remember: Modern coaches are, essentially, politicians. They're glad-handers, back-slappers, fundraisers and public faces of multimillion-dollar operations charged not only with results, but results with integrity, for the sake of preserving the mission of our sacred institutions and the virtue of our hulking, testosterone-fueled adolescents. And when the microphones are on, they behave mostly like politicians, at least when it comes to the generic pablum of endorsing everyone else in the profession. Watch ESPN for a weekend, and count the praises that old hands like Lee Corso, Lou Holtz, Jim Donnan, Bob Davie, Mike Gottfried (when he was around), Bill Curry (when he was around), et al heap praise upon their former colleagues, without reservation. Every coach will have his team ready to play, regardless of the odds or the outcome; every hire is a good one; every firing is a tragedy that cut short a patient rebuilding job before it had a chance. You may get some good-natured needling, a la old school Spurrier at Florida, or Lane Kiffin in front of the boosters, but as a rule, coaches never criticize other coaches in public. In a high-pressure, trigger-happy profession, who needs the heat from their own ranks?

So Leach's hatchet job on Eric Mangini this weekend, in response to the ex-Jets and new Browns coach (allegedly, though not definitively, as the term seems to be a paraphrase by a Browns blogger) calling Michael Crabtree a "diva," is truly a rare gem of smack in a steady stream of generics:

"Crabtree as a receiver has been more successful than that guy has been as a coach," Leach said.

More on Mangini: "I think he took it upon himself to figure that in a few minutes he had all the expertise on the subject of Michael Crabtree that he needed. And so we’ll see how those non-divas up there in Cleveland do this year.

"Here’s the other thing: What’s interesting to me, a guy that really has not accomplished a great deal there at Cleveland or the Jets for that matter to publicly comment on A) someone he doesn’t even know and B) someone whose accomplishements speak for themselves and, within the specific field that Michael Crabtree’s in, Michael’s accomplishments speak louder than Mangini’s do."

Yes, you who worked your way up from ball boy to NFL head coach and have not been specifically quoted as calling anyone in the draft anything, in particular: Your accomplishments are but crumbling sand next to those of the mighty Crabtree.

But the point is not that Leach was or wasn't out of line, or that Michael Crabtree will or won't be a great receiver at the next level, or that he will or won't have a better pro career than Darrius Heyward-Bey, or that a shotgun quarterback can or can't be taught to operate under center; those are unknowable queries for the ages over the next decade. The point is, Mike Leach is not full of crap. More importantly, he is publicly not full of crap, and won't act like someone who is full of crap for the sake of smooth public relations when the microphones come out, and that puts him even further in the upper one-tenth of one percentile as far as I'm concerned. Tenure has its benefits.

(Although next time, coach -- and forgive me for speaking out of turn, but -- it might be better to have the target of your derision actually on record somewhere saying the insulting thing he's supposed to have said. Otherwise, keep on rockin'.)