On Thursday, May 26, 2016, the Baylor University Athletic Department announced the suspension of head coach Art Briles, with the “intention to terminate” the coach and expel him from the Waco, Texas-based school. This statement came amidst the disclosures of the sickening sexual assault allegations against Baylor football players, allegations that were not met with penalizing action by the athletic department.
On Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, the Auburn University Athletic Department announced that offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee would be leaving the program in favor of the same position at the University of Connecticut. With that departure came the daunting possibility of Briles coming to Auburn to step in for Lashlee.
The opportunity for Art Briles to become an Auburn man stirred assorted reactions among Tiger faithful. We’d all like to think that second chances should be reserved for every man and every woman. Some members of the Auburn family stuck to this notion and were willing to expense some controversy to make Auburn a better football team.
Some members of the Auburn family felt their hearts writhe when reading Briles’ name on Auburn’s short list of OC candidates. Lifting that pressure was Auburn’s hiring of Arizona State offensive coordinator and former Auburn offensive analyst Chip Lindsey to fill the void left by Lashlee.
Let us, for prospective moral purposes, imagine a universe in which Auburn had elected to hire Art or Kendal Briles, Art’s son and offensive coordinator at Baylor from 2015 to 2016. We find ourselves relentlessly approaching spring practices and, even more pressing, National Signing Day. The day he is hired, Briles addresses his demons and proclaims the denouncement of them in his press conference. All is well, as the protection and comfort of a university’s female population has been swept under the rug in favor of a “bettered” athletic program.
On Friday, Jan. 27, the Dallas Morning News releases a horrifying story that furthers the narrative in Waco. A Baylor grad cloaked under the alias of Elizabeth Doe has sued the school, her lawsuit claims that 31 Baylor football players had committed at least 52 acts of rape in a four-year period. Doe reports that she was gang raped by a pair of Baylor football players and notes that four other gang rapes are included in that tally of 52.
What becomes of Briles on the Plains? It would unquestionably be a troubling and trying time for our school's culture.
Does the Auburn family riot, protesting outside football complexes until the University confirms his termination? Is he peacefully dismissed, or does the 61-year-old coach resign? Or does he slide under these allegations unscathed, claiming in rabid pressers that Doe’s claims are “in his past?”
Thank Lindsey we never have to find out.
Let’s assume from here on out that these accusations by Doe and her Colorado lawyer, John Clune, are true. Addressing the longevity of the allegations, Clune was quoted in a chilling statement as saying “as hard as the events at Baylor have been for people to hear, what went on there was much worse than has been reported.”
Much worse than a university rooted in Christian beliefs failing to responsibly address allegations of rape and sexual violence by six female students from 2009 to 2016.
Appallingly, it can get worse. Doe’s lawyer's inquiries not only claimed numbers that conflicted with those originally stated by Baylor University officials but also identified two of the gang rapes as having been committed by 10 or more players at a time. The lawsuit also defines a culture that is desensitized and open to offering sexual crimes as rewards to athletes, noting the athletic program’s “show ‘em a good time” strategy. Kendal Briles is disgustingly quoted having asked a Dallas-area recruit, “Do you like white women? Because we have a lot of them at Baylor and they love football players.”
We find ourselves at the point where these allegations are so warped and twisted that several large media outlets have since called for Baylor’s football program to receive the “death penalty,” meaning that all functions pertaining to Baylor football would be terminated for a year.
The halo placed atop the everyday student athlete has crumpled. Gone are the days of it being a common stance to subliminally instruct a young child to look up to his or her favorite college athlete. These athletes have lost their credibility and healthy relationship with their fans. From a rhetoric standpoint, their ethos has completely deteriorated.
It’s been decades in the making, but allegations such as these and the likes of Louisville’s prostitution scandal seem to be putting the finishing touches on the destruction of innocence in the world of the NCAA.
In the wake of the first allegations, Baylor blew up its staff. On the same day as Briles’ firing, university president Ken Starr was demoted to Chancellor and Athletic Director Ian McCaw was placed on probation. McCaw has since been named the athletic director at Liberty University, further confirming the notion that those in athletic power are untouchable, even those that are forced to resign from their previous position due to spearheading a sexual scandal.
Changing out staff is plain imprudent and futile. It places a temporary Band-Aid on the symptoms of the illness instead of digging out the roots of the disease.
It’s not the staff. It’s the entrenched culture. The subconscious endorsement of the phrase “boys will be boys,” which has unspeakably evolved into “show ‘em a good time.” Football has evolved. College athletics have evolved; it’s impossible to deny. It’s not harmless anymore. It’s repulsive that we’ve found ourselves in a culture where multiple players on multiple teams at a single university are arrested yearly.
As members of the Auburn family, we’re fortunate that we don’t have to deal with the nightmarish scenario of culturing a member of Baylor’s defunct staff.
However, Ian McCaw has already been hired within a year of leaving Baylor. There will come a time when the Briles father and son combo will be given coaching jobs.
When that time comes, what are we, as students and fans, to do? Is it worth protesting? Or does everyone deserve a clean slate? Perhaps the operative thing to do is to follow the example of Elizabeth Doe. Go forward and confront. Be without fear. Our widespread rallying call should reflect that of the campaign signs plastered across the campus of Baylor University: “It’s On Us.”
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