The sports world has gotten considerably more political over the past decade.
The politicization has led to increased scrutiny for players and coaches.
And a football coach ruined by one sex scandal got some shocking news.
Former Baylor Bears coach Art Briles has become too toxic for employment.
Briles, who was accused of looking the other way when a handful of Baylor football players allegedly committed sexual assault, was recently hired by former NFL head coach Hue Jackson to be the offensive coordinator at Grambling State.
Briles’s hire sparked outrage; since being fired in 2015, Briles was only able to land coaching gigs for an Italian Football League team and a high school in Texas.
After a tsunami of backlash, Briles resigned after only four days on the job.
Briles said in a statement:
“Unfortunately, I feel that my continued presence will be a distraction to you and your team, which is the last thing that I want…I have the utmost respect [for] the university, and your players.”
Briles’s ouster was precipitated by Grambling legend Doug Williams slamming the hire.
Williams, now a senior advisor for the Washington Commanders, told the Washington Post:
“I don’t know Art Briles. I’ve never met him in my life…But the situation, nobody else would hire him for whatever reason. I don’t know why Grambling State had to go be the one to hire him, so I’m not a fan at all.”
When asked if he could support the program with Briles being on staff, Williams said, “I can’t do that…No, no, no. If I support them, I condone it.”
Grambling was probably Briles’s last chance at redeeming himself and getting another opportunity to coach.
But some have argued that Briles was railroaded by Baylor in an attempt to blame a campus-wide sexual assault epidemic on Briles and the football time.
Jason Whitlock wrote for The Blaze:
“In 2015, Baylor fired Briles after a law firm, Pepper Hamilton, the school hired issued an oral report that revealed more than 100 campus-wide rape allegations. Five of the allegations involved Baylor football players. Briles did not sexually assault anyone. He recruited a handful of players who…were accused of rape. Most people who have examined the case closely – including yours truly – believe Briles and his black football players were used as scapegoats to cover up a campus-wide problem at the private Baptist university.”
However, the narrative on Briles appears to be set in stone.
He has been labeled the coach who covered up rape, and he is too radioactive for a team to hire.
Whitlock added:
“I have a great deal of respect for Doug Williams. He’s a good man. I wish he’d done some basic homework before using his influence to undermine Briles and Hue Jackson. Williams admitted he doesn’t know Briles and has never talked with him. Williams, apparently, accepted the corporate and social media narrative about Briles.”
If Briles was scapegoated, he certainly will not get a fair hearing in the court of social media public opinion.