As many know, I reported on this story previously and broke news of two assaults handled/covered up by the Baylor staff that hopefully helped in some small way in getting the national snowball rolling.
I knew some disgusting acts took place, but certainly had no idea the frequency of the rapes was an astounding 50-plus by football players alone as alleged in the most recent lawsuit. Furthermore, I was more concerned about the "covering up" than I was about the "enabling." That is to say, my main protest here was the fact that Briles and staff met with victims post-assault and circumvented all proper channels for reporting in order to protect his players over victims. That alone is disgusting.
HOWEVER, to actually be complicit in setting up the situations where innocent and trusting young women (students at the University) were used as recruiting collateral and treated as unpaid prostitutes is another thing entirely. Whether the young women used as recruiting tools were "willing" or not doesn't matter. Here's why: the latest suit alleges that money was even provided to players to set up parties with alcohol, illegal drugs and certainly "white women" to have sex with. When your career at Baylor starts like this (believing you are untouchable and that women are meat for you to have your way with as you please; and when this idea is proliferated -- and in some ways celebrated and encouraged -- by coaches who many see as father figures) sexual assaults will come.
And they did.
It's so much worse than even I thought -- and I was/am privy to some disgusting details. The latest lawsuit is a death-penalty-level set of allegations even if 1/100th true. But who provided the money to make these activities possible? Was it Briles? An assistant coach?
I'll say this: Football Operations is the central nervous system of the football program. The good, the bad and the ugly all flow through football operations. It's where the sausage is made and where the "behind the scenes" stuff happens. In SEC country -- and probably in most places -- it's where the money-men in the recruiting shadows show up to find their duffel bags.
Casey Horny, who is now on staff at the University of Texas as a special teams QC assistant, was the Assistant Director of Football Operations at Baylor during the time of all new allegations released as well as a deplorable set of previous ones. He was Art Briles' second-longest tenured staffer and a vocal supporter of Briles, even months after the release of the Pepper Hamilton report. He was one of many on the staff who set forth vocally to portray Briles as a victim in the wake of what now appears to be at least 50 ruined/damaged lives of innocent young women.
Casey Horny, who has three daughters of his own and is an old friend of Tom Herman, was said to be thoroughly vetted by the Texas staff and admin before his hire. I can tell you from experience that Horny is an engaging and charismatic guy who is very, very easy to trust and seems to have his story straight when grilled with any line of questioning about his role (or lack of one) in any of this horrifying scandal. He's a Longhorn (Class of 2000). If you sat down with him, you are very likely to come out of the meeting liking him. Trust me ... or ask Mike Perrin.
With these new allegations, though, it becomes absolutely impossible for me to believe that the right-hand man in the department where all the dirty stuff comes to be laundered and where checks are cut for all kinds of expenses -- both legitimate and illegitimate, both clean and dirty -- didn't know.
And when Tom Herman tells the Texas fans that this situation was vetted properly and thoroughly, he is not only insulting their intelligence, he's also selling off a significant bit of goodwill-equity that comes with all new coaches in their honeymoon periods. Herman will tell you that new Baylor AD Mack Rhoades gave both Mike Perrin and him assurances that nowhere in any reports available to Rhoades was Casey Horny's name mentioned as being complicit. That sounds nice and it will be what Herman points to as he continues to defend his idiotic hire, but it is useless. Don't forget the facts and don't be fooled: No assistants were specifically named in the written finding of fact supplied by the third-party firm and Rhoades is not privy to what was presented to the Baylor BOR in the oral presentation ... the one that prompted the immediate firing of Art Briles.
I could tell you, with the same amount of knowledge that Rhoades has, that Casey Horny was not specifically implicated in any materials available. You could, too - anyone could. It's 100% meaningless and anything but "thorough" vetting.
It's insulting. It's damaging, it's reckless and it's embarrassing. It's borderline-diabolical and it's unacceptable. Tom Herman clearly has a plan and he clearly believes that Horny is a fantastic coach. Maybe Tom Herman feels like his decisions are above reproach and scrutiny. But the excuses he's made about this -- again -- idiotic hire are indefensible. It doesn't matter if Herman knows Horny "well enough to know" he could never be part of something like this and that "he's a terrific coach and father," etc. It doesn't matter what Mack Rhoades says or what any of the "vetting" turned up. Tom Herman hooked up his boy at the expense of Texas, its reputation and much more. In some ways, he's saying that what happened at Baylor is OK to associate yourself with.
As a fan of this storied program, he is forcing you to associate yourself with it.
All over a low-level special teams assistant.
I'm not a fan of the Texas football program, but I am an alumnus of this, the flagship university of the greatest state in the greatest nation in our world's history.
And I'm disgusted. Absolutely sick. You should be, too.
I knew some disgusting acts took place, but certainly had no idea the frequency of the rapes was an astounding 50-plus by football players alone as alleged in the most recent lawsuit. Furthermore, I was more concerned about the "covering up" than I was about the "enabling." That is to say, my main protest here was the fact that Briles and staff met with victims post-assault and circumvented all proper channels for reporting in order to protect his players over victims. That alone is disgusting.
HOWEVER, to actually be complicit in setting up the situations where innocent and trusting young women (students at the University) were used as recruiting collateral and treated as unpaid prostitutes is another thing entirely. Whether the young women used as recruiting tools were "willing" or not doesn't matter. Here's why: the latest suit alleges that money was even provided to players to set up parties with alcohol, illegal drugs and certainly "white women" to have sex with. When your career at Baylor starts like this (believing you are untouchable and that women are meat for you to have your way with as you please; and when this idea is proliferated -- and in some ways celebrated and encouraged -- by coaches who many see as father figures) sexual assaults will come.
And they did.
It's so much worse than even I thought -- and I was/am privy to some disgusting details. The latest lawsuit is a death-penalty-level set of allegations even if 1/100th true. But who provided the money to make these activities possible? Was it Briles? An assistant coach?
I'll say this: Football Operations is the central nervous system of the football program. The good, the bad and the ugly all flow through football operations. It's where the sausage is made and where the "behind the scenes" stuff happens. In SEC country -- and probably in most places -- it's where the money-men in the recruiting shadows show up to find their duffel bags.
Casey Horny, who is now on staff at the University of Texas as a special teams QC assistant, was the Assistant Director of Football Operations at Baylor during the time of all new allegations released as well as a deplorable set of previous ones. He was Art Briles' second-longest tenured staffer and a vocal supporter of Briles, even months after the release of the Pepper Hamilton report. He was one of many on the staff who set forth vocally to portray Briles as a victim in the wake of what now appears to be at least 50 ruined/damaged lives of innocent young women.
Casey Horny, who has three daughters of his own and is an old friend of Tom Herman, was said to be thoroughly vetted by the Texas staff and admin before his hire. I can tell you from experience that Horny is an engaging and charismatic guy who is very, very easy to trust and seems to have his story straight when grilled with any line of questioning about his role (or lack of one) in any of this horrifying scandal. He's a Longhorn (Class of 2000). If you sat down with him, you are very likely to come out of the meeting liking him. Trust me ... or ask Mike Perrin.
With these new allegations, though, it becomes absolutely impossible for me to believe that the right-hand man in the department where all the dirty stuff comes to be laundered and where checks are cut for all kinds of expenses -- both legitimate and illegitimate, both clean and dirty -- didn't know.
And when Tom Herman tells the Texas fans that this situation was vetted properly and thoroughly, he is not only insulting their intelligence, he's also selling off a significant bit of goodwill-equity that comes with all new coaches in their honeymoon periods. Herman will tell you that new Baylor AD Mack Rhoades gave both Mike Perrin and him assurances that nowhere in any reports available to Rhoades was Casey Horny's name mentioned as being complicit. That sounds nice and it will be what Herman points to as he continues to defend his idiotic hire, but it is useless. Don't forget the facts and don't be fooled: No assistants were specifically named in the written finding of fact supplied by the third-party firm and Rhoades is not privy to what was presented to the Baylor BOR in the oral presentation ... the one that prompted the immediate firing of Art Briles.
I could tell you, with the same amount of knowledge that Rhoades has, that Casey Horny was not specifically implicated in any materials available. You could, too - anyone could. It's 100% meaningless and anything but "thorough" vetting.
It's insulting. It's damaging, it's reckless and it's embarrassing. It's borderline-diabolical and it's unacceptable. Tom Herman clearly has a plan and he clearly believes that Horny is a fantastic coach. Maybe Tom Herman feels like his decisions are above reproach and scrutiny. But the excuses he's made about this -- again -- idiotic hire are indefensible. It doesn't matter if Herman knows Horny "well enough to know" he could never be part of something like this and that "he's a terrific coach and father," etc. It doesn't matter what Mack Rhoades says or what any of the "vetting" turned up. Tom Herman hooked up his boy at the expense of Texas, its reputation and much more. In some ways, he's saying that what happened at Baylor is OK to associate yourself with.
As a fan of this storied program, he is forcing you to associate yourself with it.
All over a low-level special teams assistant.
I'm not a fan of the Texas football program, but I am an alumnus of this, the flagship university of the greatest state in the greatest nation in our world's history.
And I'm disgusted. Absolutely sick. You should be, too.
