Humanity Finally Scores a Victory over Football with Art Briles' Firing

Art Briles is a good ol' boy coach, deeply embedded in all levels of the religion of football in the state of Texas.

He built Baylor into one of the nation’s top programs and wooed boosters into huge amounts of money and a new stadium. That’s why it is so shocking he was "suspended indefinitely with intent to terminate" by the university Thursday following an investigation into the acts of his football players terrorizing women on campus.

Not that it’s a surprise football players acted that way. We keep hearing that same story all over the country. And then we see the same cover-up and excuses from some people while hearing the same outrage from others. Rinse and repeat. It’s disgusting.

But now Art Briles is gone. His power, his success did not save him. Here’s the thing:

Humanity just beat football.

Football always seems to find a way around the pain it causes. Not this time. This time, football was sacked.

Someone took a hard action, and so maybe next time won’t be the same.

And it’s going way overboard to say this, but I think that women on campuses around the country just became a little bit safer.

I’m not going to pat Baylor on the back. It did the right thing—you could argue the only thing—but it has loads of problems. It covered things up. It pretended. It loved its football more than it loved the safety of its women.

LM Otero/Associated Press/Associated Press

Yes, it finally got around to firing Briles and to demoting President Ken Starr, but that took too long.

I’m not sure whether Baylor was shamed into firing Briles, but it’s a good bet the big money there wanted Briles to stay. Maybe Baylor came down with a severe case of conscience? Whatever the means, whatever happened, it gave enough weight to the side of the equation that always loses to football.

You can’t celebrate justice over monstrous acts because the monstrous acts were still committed. Some of those acts at Baylor have led to convictions and some just to allegations.

Baylor had an independent body, the law firm of Pepper Hamilton, conduct an investigation, and people will parse the results for a while. And even early on, some of the findings are damning.

What did Briles know? How much did he cover up when he heard reports of football players allegedly assaulting women? How much detail can a football coach know about every player on a football team? It’s hard enough to know what your own kid is doing all the time.

But that’s the point. Enabling doesn’t have to be that direct.

It is a culture. If you look to the University of Texas, you’ll see football coach Charlie Strong has set the tone, defined the culture of good behavior and treating women right. He has found a way to meld caring for young men with a hard line on their behavior. That doesn’t mean monstrous things won’t happen there, but it means a leader is leading.

That is the demand. Maybe Thursday’s actions just made it the new standard.

The required standard.

Baylor football tried to self-police. (You can’t see my snicker as I write that.) It’s another way of saying cover-up. Football on so many campuses is a fiefdom, so why wouldn’t the coaches think they should be the police?

Football has just become too important to too many people. Too much money and adulation. But every time another player is accused of hurting a woman, someone says that same thing, while certain others find a way to blame the woman or cast suspicion on her.

It shouldn’t be this hard to treat other people well, to treat them decently and with respect. Call me a sucker, but I still believe sports and coaching can instill values when done right. It is about developing bodies and minds and increasing confidence, which should lead to treating people well and not feeling an entitlement and the ability to overpower other people’s bodies.

Coaching and education are bigger than reaching the College Football Playoff.

You wouldn’t think it would take this long for a private Baptist university in Waco, Texas, to do the right thing. Ultimately, real religion won out over fake religion. 

Well, hell, if you’ve been paying any attention to football, then yes, you would. Twelve years ago, my alma mater, Colorado, had a horrific scandal involving, what else, sexual assault, and the coach was fired. But not right away. Not until a year later and following a 70-3 loss to Texas. A strong conscience can usually beat losing football.

But Baylor is one of the best programs in the country. It was, anyway. It may now start a serious decline.

That’s actually a good thing when priorities are put in order. Maybe the culture of the whole sport is starting to turn.

Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report. Follow him at @gregcouch.