The Grambling Tigers kinda-sorta officially announced that they were hiring Art Briles as their new offensive coordinator on Thursday. Given the circumstances surrounding Briles’ time at Baylor and the radioactive nature of his reputation in the year since it appeared that the school tried to slip that news out into the world without many people noticing.
Of course, they did and lots of people in the college football world were disappointing by the news. That Grambling didn’t make any official announcement and instead tried to sweep it under the rug only made it worse.
If you hire someone during the outbreak of war and won’t even release a statement about it, you know what you’ve done. Bums. https://t.co/qJ1lyi9wt5
— Mark Ennis (@MarkEnnis) February 24, 2022
One person who was extremely disappointed in the news was ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who chided the university over the hiring during First Take on Friday.
"I will say it to your damn face. It's a ridiculous hire!"
— ESPN's @stephenasmith blasts Grambling State University after hiring Art Briles as offensive coordinator. Briles last oversaw Baylor's football program, that as Smith notes was "rife with sexual assault." pic.twitter.com/CIecsPKMwK
— The Recount (@therecount) February 25, 2022
“Let’s not conflate things, let’s not confuse the issues, let’s not try to be evasive, you hired a man who oversaw a program rife with sexual assault perpetrators,” said Smith. “The law has stated that. We’ve got people who are in prison because of it. As a result, nobody touched this man for six years for a reason. And if he’s gonna land someplace, it shouldn’t be at a historically Black college and universities, where you had a lot of the players at Baylor, if not all of them, who were being accused of it, who happens to be Black.
“Clearly, him being a leader of young Black men is highly questionable. That’s who you hired, Hue Jackson. There’s no way around that…it’s a ridiculous hire.”
Grambling looks pretty terrible on all fronts here. Not only for hiring Briles but for their cowardice in the way they “announced” it, knowing full-well how it was going to look.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.