One day after Art Briles accused Baylor of wrongful termination, Bleacher Report’s Jason King reported that the school and football coach reached a contract settlement Friday. Briles was ousted last month amid revelations that the program responded to sexual assault accusations against players with indifference or hostility toward alleged victims and had about $40 million remaining on his contract.
On Thursday, Briles, indicated he had no interest in settling a federal lawsuit filed against him and the university by former Baylor student Jasmin Hernandez, who was sexually assaulted by Baylor football player Tevin Elliott in 2012. (The Post does not identify the victims of sexual assault and rape, but Hernandez is no longer seeking anonymity and has spoken publicly to draw attention to the case.) Hernandez claims that Baylor knew Elliott, who was sentenced to 20 years, had a history of assaults and failed to protect her and others who were attacked.
In a letter filed to Baylor’s lawyers on Thursday, Briles’s personal attorney, Ernest Cannon, suggested the school used Briles as a scapegoat for what an independent investigation determined were failings in how Baylor handled accusations of sexual assault.
“The conclusion is inescapable that the motive of Baylor and the Board of Regents was to use its head football coach and the Baylor athletic department as a camouflage to disguise and distract from its own institutional failure to comply with Title IX and other federal civil rights laws,” Cannon wrote.