Thursday, May 26, 2016

Baylor fires Art Briles

Baylor has fired head coach Art Briles as the investigation by an outside agency has gathered together facts concerning the allegations that several Baylor players not only committed sexual assaults against fellow students but were allowed to continue playing football and remaining on campus while their alleged victims received no help. While I am unsure whether the suddenness of Briles's canning is due to bad publicity or additional revelations, the reality is that the original allegations were deserving of this result. Briles deserved to be fired and while Baylor football fans may well be worried about the program's future the reality is that does not outweigh justice for the victims of assault, especially in light of the role the program played in the situation (recruiting players accused of assault prior to arriving in Waco and not investigating or punishing those players accused of assault on the Baylor campus who then continued to victimize other students. The firing of Briles came as Baylor will begin play in a new, expensive stadium that now has a bit of a taint along with its new paint.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Baylor President Ken Starr Removed From Post

As Ken Starr knows all too well, when a scandal reaches the courts it becomes too big to cover up. Lawsuits against Baylor University's handling of accusations by students of sexual assaults committed by other students, including members of the football team, are now bringing what were at times whispered accusations to the light of day. Starr, who himself first became nationally famous for his independent counsel investigation of President Bill Clinton that eventually led to Clinton's impeachment, is the first Baylor figure to fall and as the president he was the man in charge. Others should follow as it is clear that many people knew about the charges of rape and did nothing about them. It is especially awful to hear that football coach Art Briles knew about accusations against his players and did not act to remove these guys from the campus--many guys continued to play as if nothing was going on. One former player can only be described as a serial rapist and to allow him to not only continue to play football but to do so on a campus with thousands of potential victims is unconscionable. Briles, who seems to have followed a blueprint of building his team by adding players with character concerns, needs to go soon. With a new $300 million stadium to fill, however, it remains to be seen if that will happen.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Satellite Camps

Have you seen Jim Harbaugh's schedule of summer camps? Who are the poor people coordinating this craziness? The Wolverines will hold 26 camps throughout the country in June, beginning June 2nd in Atlanta. On June 8th alone they have camps taking place in Mississippi, Ohio and New Jersey (right here in Paramus). The Paramus Catholic location is extra special--and I am not counting my sister being part of their sports hall of fame--as Harbaugh is even scheduled to be the school's commencement speaker at this year's graduation on June 9. Too much? Probably. There are only so many recruits Michigan can get and without doing these camps they would be unhappy with any ranking outside the nation's top ten. So this will marginally improve on that. Meanwhile Harbaugh's competition is busy trying to negate some of that new-found advantage. Ohio State, for example, just agreed to come to Jersey too on the same day the Michigan camp is in Paramus to run their own camp in conjunction with Temple and Rutgers. So now think of our favorite rivalries as 365-day realities. Wait, we did already.