Baylor player says team is wearing all-black uniforms to protest Briles firing
Baylor Bears wide receiver Chris Platt said on Twitter Friday that the team will wear black uniforms for Saturday's game against TCU in protest of the firing of former head coach Art Briles, according to ESPN.
Briles was fired in May as part of the program’s ongoing sexual assault scandal, involving 17 reported sexual assault allegations from women that involved 19 Baylor players, dating back to 2011.
Baylor assistant coaches also spoke out in defense of Briles on Friday night, releasing a joint statement on Twitter disputing a claim by the school’s Board of Regents that Briles chose not to report an alleged gang rape involving players.
Baylor regent David Harper told the Dallas Morning News he knew of at least one occasion where Briles knew of allegations and opted not to report them to authorities. The coaches’ statement is below, from the account of Briles’s son Kendal, the team’s offensive coordinator:
— Coach KB (@kendalbriles) November 5, 2016
The coaches assert Briles was unaware of the incident until nine months after it happened, and that Briles reported it. The victim in the incident was an athlete at the schoo, and the statement defends Briles’s integrity, citing the victim’s head coach, who said he handled things “honorably” and gave it the “attention it deserved.”