Press "Enter" to skip to content

Baylor Football: 52 Rapes in Four Years

A lawsuit alleges that Baylor football players committed 52 rapes in four years’s time.

From Deadspin:

Baylor football players committed 52 rapes in four years, the majority at off-campus parties hosted by football players, including five gang rapes; the university paid off one woman who said she was raped by giving her free tuition; and football staff arranged for women to have sex with recruits on their campus visits, according to a Title IX lawsuit filed today in federal court in Texas.

Power corrupts, and the power of celebrity and influence did a lot of corrupting here, it seems. This blog has discussed this issue — and our collective role in it — previously.

Our Ongoing Bad Habits

Ultimately the twain — Briles and the police — are responding to the same set of incentives. Waco, the University, the surrounding communities seems to value the ongoing success of the football team than the plight of the victims. Or maybe they only care about the select influential community members. You know how these things go.

It is difficult to get excited about any and all corruption or misplaced public priorities. I mean, one can’t personally attend nor vet every city government feasibility study on a publicly financed convention center, but we cannot say we didn’t have the time or effort to pay attention to these kinds of things. Because plenty of people do watch every Saturday. And that’s part of the problem.

It is easy to look over at Waco and tsk tsk at them, but as the saying goes, the wise learn the lessons from others’ mistakes.

Practically speaking, FAU’s hiring of Kendal Briles looks bad. Lane Kiffin thought he was being clever by hiring Kid Briles and not Papa Briles. He was wrong.

The right move was probably to not hire Kid Briles in the first place, but with the allegations that he was essentially advertising sex as part of recruiting coupled with the casual approach to rape allegations FAU is in a bad place.

I am not so naive to think that selling sex is not part of the recruiting game, but hinting at the beautiful women on campus is one thing and sending Baylor Bruins (allegedly) into rooms is another. These things were part of the larger casual disregard for anything but “improving” the football team. Again, we all are complicit.

By preventing compensation to players with actual currency, these programs are turning to other incentives — sex, facilities — to entice recruits.

Be First to Comment

Mission News Theme by Compete Themes.