Malbec said:
You've NEVER seen me ascribe to the theory of 0/0/0. I wouldn't say that about tennis or basketball either. But, I also do not abide 17/19/4 and the slick spin with which it was created. But to blame the coach for one or more of his players committing a SA is wrong, and suggesting whether directly or by silence, that a coach participated in covering up SA is even more wrong.
I think you are applying a stigma to the word "scapegoat" that over extends the nature of the beast. What happened to Briles at BU was not a first on our campus, it was just the most overt. When the press gets wind, or even if there is a possibility that the press might get wind of something embarrassing, someone is going to get saddled with the blame. And when you think the culture you have constructed is just (for whatever purpose you deem it to be just), you will seek to maintain the order that built the culture, and you will do so at the expense of those on the periphery of that culture. And, often, as that order has proven at BU, you will ease your guilt in doing so with the only thing you have that can allow you to perpetuate that order - money.
Now, there are those that will remain nameless, that like to suggest that the resultant brouhaha that created a worsening of the "scandal" was the action of Briles after he was terminated; that if he had just taken his money and gone away, he would be working now at another college, and that he was fully to blame for the way the press treated him, since he gave interviews and showed up at a ball game in another city. Well, let me give you something to think about here.
If Baylor had simply come out with a definitive statement that said, "Art Briles is a good man. We must make this clear. He did not attempt to cover up sexual assault. Nobody at Baylor attempted to cover up sexual assault. We take the safety of our students at Baylor with the utmost sincerity and will always put the welfare of our students before anything else. There simply was an attitude of relaxed discipline and accountability within the football program that the university doesn't wish to falsely portray Baylor as a school willing to win at any cost and we feel it is better to start fresh. We have paid Coach Briles a settlement of $15 million to honor our contractual obligation to him. We wish Coach Briles the best, and know that he will make another university an outstanding coach."
Instead the university chose to let the press run wild with false stories and allow a false narrative to be created and sustained. BU didn't even tell the press that they paid Briles and how much they paid him. It took required tax information filings to bring that info out. Had that information been released from the start, it would have quelled much negative press against Briles and there would have been no need for him to defend himself to the media. It is amazing that the very same critics that blame Briles for defending himself in the press, also claim that if he was wronged he would have sued Baylor and not dropped his lawsuit against the Regents. He shouldn't have defended himself! He should have defended himself! You guys have to make up your mind on this one.
I think all Briles wanted when he filed his suit was to have the Regents involved stop throwing gasoline on the fire. If they had not tossed out that 17/19/4 garbage, and had just made a statement that Briles was not a rape enabler, that lawsuit would have never been filed.
Nice post. That is a reasonable alternative that might have worked. I do not believe Briles' post firings actions were as altruistic as you make them out to be.
