Baylor Details "Horrifyng" Alleged Sexual Assaults by Football Players
The Wallstreet Journal has a story with a few details provided by Baylor Board of Regent Members. It's unreal the attitude taken by some of the Baylor donors and boosters:
Drayton McLane, a billionaire businessman whose name is on the Baylor football stadium, and other large donors asked the board for a private briefing on why the regents took such drastic action. Mr. Murff, chairman of the regents, declined to give them details of the investigation.
“They were very cold,” Mr. McLane said in an interview, adding that the controversy won’t affect his giving to Baylor and that he “just wants to understand the decisions that were made.”
Mr. Murff said other wealthy alumni suggested they would withhold millions of dollars if Baylor didn’t bring Mr. Briles back.
October 28th, 2016 at 6:28 PM ^
Paywalled article. To get around it use this link.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Baylor+Details+%E2%80%98Horrifying%E2%80%99+Allege…
October 28th, 2016 at 7:19 PM ^
I would say it is nearly impossible for Briles to ever work in college football circles of note ever again really. The weird thing is that once in a while on Twitter, I will see people mention him all the same in their wish lists for various open or soon-to-be open coaching positions and I wonder why those people still believe that is even remotely possible.
October 28th, 2016 at 7:35 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 7:42 PM ^
recently wrote that Briles was railroaded. His credibility is questionable, but it provides some cover to someone that wanted to hire Briles. Given the termination agreement he made with Baylor, it was unclear that anything this damning would turn up as part of performing due diligence. I figured a lower tier program would be willing to take the heat for hiring him.
October 28th, 2016 at 8:45 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 9:19 PM ^
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October 29th, 2016 at 1:03 AM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 10:13 PM ^
have happened before this news broke. I don't see any school hiring him now.
2) Before this story, some places would want him. He'd be a level or two better than the other coaches some could attract.
3) Michigan is more sensitive to that kind of bad publicity than many schools. They also have many more good coaching options than most.
Forget Art Briles, do you think we would have hired Franklin after what happened at Vanderbilt? Petrino? Would Butch Jones keep his job here after allegations that he called a player a traitor for help a victim of a sexual assault? If true, he's worse than Briles. Only Petrino suffered any consequences for his behavior and it was quickly forgiven.
October 28th, 2016 at 8:47 PM ^
The case for Briles getting another chance (will, not should) is pretty easy to make. There's a lot of evidence that people who are successful in athletics (or other walks of life for that matter) will get additional chances regardless of criminal or moral transgressions. For example:
Mike Tyson - Convicted of rape, prison time, returns to fight numerous high profile fights
Adrian Peterson - Child abuse, pleads to lesser count of assaulting his own 4 year old, and ran for 1500 yards the next year
Mike Vick - Two years in prison for his dog fighting ring, played for another decade after release.
Ruben Patterson - Convicted of attempted rape, jail, plays another ~decade in the NBA
Craig McTavish - Killed someone while drunk driving, later won the Stanley Cup
Leonard Little - Also killed someone while drunk driving, played another ~decade for the Rams.
Ray Lewis - Accused of murder, semi-rolled on his friends, and it was pretty clear all were involved. Played another 15 years and now on ESPN.
Floyd Mayweather - Convicted of domestic violence, later goes on to make a few hundred million.
There are others but that's the general idea. Briles was highly successful at school that was a doormat before he arrived. His failings were not criminal himself, but a failure to administratively handle his players' actions appropriately, which will make it a lot easier to get sell his redemption story someday.
People like him often get a 2nd chance, because there is always some place with enough desire to win that people will rationalize away any past transgressions due to the importance of winning. Just like those boosters are doing. Winning matters, for better or worse. See this story before many many times in athletics and other areas. It's similar in a lot of ways to the Paterno situation, and while most of us think PSU fans are crazy for revering that guy, the fact of the matter is that once the public outcry died down the sanctions were reduced and now they want to put up a statue again.
Anyway, his main problem is that he is kind of old. The script is for him to go to the NFL for a few years as an assistant or OC, wait until the outrage blows over and play the redemption story in 5 but he will be getting old. And you never know. But you can't rule out another chance so easily.
Not to say that I think this is right, just that it is the way it is. Same thing outside of athletics except that the equivalency for winning is usually making money.
October 28th, 2016 at 9:57 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 10:03 PM ^
...so...you're saying you can get a second chance for murder, but not for being a criminally obtuse coach?
October 29th, 2016 at 1:13 AM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 7:40 PM ^
19 players, including four alleged gang rapes, since 2011. [S]ome Baylor players allegedly participated in what one regent calls a 'horrifying and painful' series of assaults over several years."
Frustrating that the only reason this gets out is because they needed to prove to unbelieving donors that they really should have fired Briles. Private religious university that bans alcohol and premarital sex. Go Texas.
October 28th, 2016 at 6:58 PM ^
While I think we can all agree that Briles royally screwed up (even he admits this) and is probably a pretty scummy human being, I will say this quote from the WSJ article "In one of the alleged gang rapes, the victim, who also was an athlete, told her coach that she didn’t want to go the police. When notified of the allegation, Mr. Briles told the victim’s coach that he hoped she would go to the police, according to people familiar with the matter. One person close to the victim said she viewed Mr. Briles as supportive of her claim. However, Mr. Briles didn’t notify the school’s judicial-affairs office or the Title IX office, these people said." does make me question this example. It seems he has a fiduciary responsibility as coach/university employee to report to the Title IX office but, when the victim, who is an adult, doesn't want to go to the police or press charges, I think that certainly complicates the issue in a way that may not be readily apparent at first glance. Perhaps some of the MGoLawyers will chime in on balancing this fiduciary responsibility versus supporting the adult victim's wishes.
October 28th, 2016 at 7:04 PM ^
I'm pretty sure University staff is required to report regardless of the survivors decision to go to the police.
At least at Michigan, I remember this being a big thing with the changes to the way sexual assault cases are being handled a coupe years ago. It was one of the reasons why staff were asked (by the organizers) not to attend a specific event on campus where survivors could share their expierences because it would put them in a situation where they would be forced to report and thus survivors wouldn't feel safe sharing.
October 28th, 2016 at 8:24 PM ^
What about the althlete's coach, the one that told Briles about the incident? Didn't she have a duty to report the incident? From the quote it appears that Briles learned about the incident as second hand hearsay.
October 28th, 2016 at 9:18 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 8:31 PM ^
That's just one of the "alleged" rapes.
October 28th, 2016 at 7:14 PM ^
that the most unethical behaviours seem to come from those claiming to be the most virtuous.
October 28th, 2016 at 8:03 PM ^
When you're down to unreported gang-rape, its time to shut the program down.
That's worse than anything possible short of murder.
The fact that that does NOT bring the death penalty is horrifying. What's worse? Complete loss of institutional control over athletes getting paid? NCAA needs to stop FUCKING WITH satellite camps and write some FUCKING legislation that matters.
As a father, if this happened to my daughter, I can only say that this would be the tip of the iceberg in terms of violence.
October 28th, 2016 at 8:50 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 9:07 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 10:28 PM ^
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October 28th, 2016 at 9:48 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 8:44 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 9:04 PM ^
"Mr. Murff said other wealthy alumni suggested they would withhold millions of dollars if Baylor didn’t bring Mr. Briles back."
If you believe that any of these jaw-dropping hypocrites would feel the same if it was their own precious snowflake daughter that got gang-raped, I've got some Florida coastal real estate to sell you.
October 28th, 2016 at 9:58 PM ^
October 29th, 2016 at 8:41 AM ^
I agree and there's been some documented reasons to let at least one go, but that would have had too much negative effect on this football season. Baylor really needs to get smacked by someone.
They did fire the president and push out the AD and a few below them. Frankly, if you had to pick the one most to blame, it was Ken Starr. It was rotten from the top on down.
October 28th, 2016 at 10:11 PM ^
October 28th, 2016 at 10:40 PM ^
The only difference I'm seeing here is that while JoePa and his family, staff and athletic dept. were (and still are) in complete denial, at least Briles seems genuinely contrite and has been so since early on.
That said, there's still no way I even consider hiring Briles, no matter how bad I might want to win. Some stains are simply too great to overcome. Even if Briles can demonstrate he had good intent and/or understands now how he SHOULD have handled things, the fact remains that his inaction allowed sexual assaults to continue under his watch. In this day and age---and rightfully so---hiring Briles is an open invitation to mountains of bad publicity and protests.