A new court filing details allegations that former Baylor University football coach Art Briles knew about sexual assaults by players, but failed to do anything to alert the university or punish the students, The Wall Street Journal reports. Not only that, but he also said some awful, sexist things in the process of protecting his players from assault accusations.
According to the report, the document explains why Baylor decided to fire the coach—Briles was popular, and many in the university community think it was unfair to fire him. Briles earlier this week dropped a defamation lawsuit filed against university officials he accused of making false statements about him, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Cosmopolitan reports that in one 2013 case, a player reportedly exposed himself to a masseuse, who then asked the team to discipline the player. Briles reportedy texted the assistant coach: “What kind of discipline… She a stripper?”
This misogynistic attitude continued when it came to a truly shocking number of other sexual assault cases on the team. Defensive lineman Tevin Elliot was allowed to remain on the team even though two women accused him of rape in separate incidents in 2012. Briles allegedly did not notify university officials of the accusations. Elliot was later convicted in 2014 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, accused by four students of sexual assault.
Also in 2013, a female Baylor athlete reported she was gang raped by football players on Briles' team. A woman’s coach told Briles which players, and he was quoted as saying, “These are some bad dudes. Why was she around those guys?” When that's how you talk about your own players, maybe it's time to examine your life—and report those players to the police.
Briles was fired last May after an investigation determined, obviously, that his staff had tried to stop their players from receiving justice for sexually assaulting other students.
Now that this information has come to light, justice can be served to the victims of these horrible incidents, and the university can begin to address how to improve its strategies for handling sexual assault cases and holding officials within the university responsible.
