Briles??? Are you guys kidding me? Imagine what happened at Baylor... but on a 100x bigger stage because it's Texas. And whether he knew every detail about what was going on or not, he clearly knew some of it based on actions that he and his staff took. The reports indicate that he and/or his staff met with victims to try to deal with the situation rather handling it properly through the appropriate legal or administrative channels. Whatever else went on, there's no way to really spin that as a good thing.
Second chances? I mean, yes and no. I do believe that someone who actually shows remorse for a situation and does what it takes to move on with being a better person deserves a chance at having a good life again. But in no way is Briles at risk of having a horrible life because he isn't coaching for a top tier football school a year after being canned for, at best, allowing things to get out of control and looking the other way and trying to cover them up (because even if he somehow didn't know any of the issues that came up as they originally came up, he certainly knew well before the rest of the world did). And should someone be rewarded for all the stuff that they looked the other way on at Baylor... by getting an even better job immediately?
Come on guys, we're talking about a situation where young women's lives were affected in ways that you'll never understand. Look, I love Longhorn football, but have a sense of perspective here. Football isn't THAT important that the reaction should be, "how many situations of rape occurred under his watch? oh well. can he win here?"
The fact of the matter is, I'm sure that he'll get his second chance. I'd imagine it will probably be somewhere where the image of the program isn't as big a deal. He'll start there and, if he wins games (and doesn't let things get so out of hand) then he'll work his way back up to a higher level job. Because, yeah, in most people's mind... football IS that important. I mean look at situations across the NFL that people just seem to shrug off. But I'd prefer not to have to just shrug off my morality to root for whoever is in burnt orange. If it were 6 years from now and his program at Kent State or Florida Atlantic was being run cleanly... that might be different. But it's not. And luckily, I think the powers-that-be probably care about the image of the program enough to not consider Briles an option right now.
