Jeffrey Simmons & Jeff Lebby

[POTUS]

This is a preemptive post and a reminder. The whole world scolded us for not cutting bait on Jeffrey Simmons after the incident in high school. Of course, most of those people would have loved for him to join their school's roster, but no one cares about hypocrisy anymore. They sat on their moral high horse because it was advantageous to them and disadvantageous to us.

As it turns out, Simmons was everything you'd want in a player at State and in the NFL. He made a mistake defending his sister and we were vindicated in having him on our team and giving him a chance to prove everyone wrong. He's one of our best ambassadors and maybe the most talented player we've had this century. I couldn't be prouder to call him a Bulldog.

All that to say, when Art Briles is inevitably spotted in Starkville sometime in the future, please remember that. He is our coach's father-in-law and his grandkids will be living in Starkville for the foreseeable future. Even if he keeps a low profile, he's going to be around and the usual suspects will try and criticize us for that. I don't really care to re-litigating the circumstances that ended his tenure at Baylor. I just know that almost every person who makes a big deal of his presence most likely has an agenda that doesn't involve success for Mississippi State and a moral high horse they stable when it suits them. To them I say, go to the Baylor boards and hash it out there.

/rant over

 

[CochiseCowbell]

That other thread Part Deux: Electric Boogaloo!*




For the record, I concur about Simmons and I'm a fan of innocent until proven guilty.

 

[Dawgbite]

I did a lot of stupid **** back in the 80's, a lot of it illegal so I'm not judging anyone. Just because you make some stupid mistakes doesn't make you a permanent bad person.

 

[The Peeper]

This is a preemptive post and a reminder. The whole world scolded us for not cutting bait on Jeffrey Simmons after the incident in high school. Of course, most of those people would have loved for him to join their school's roster, but no one cares about hypocrisy anymore. They sat on their moral high horse because it was advantageous to them and disadvantageous to us.

As it turns out, Simmons was everything you'd want in a player at State and in the NFL. He made a mistake defending his sister and we were vindicated in having him on our team and giving him a chance to prove everyone wrong. He's one of our best ambassadors and maybe the most talented player we've had this century. I couldn't be prouder to call him a Bulldog.

All that to say, when Art Briles is inevitably spotted in Starkville sometime in the future, please remember that. He is our coach's father-in-law and his grandkids will be living in Starkville for the foreseeable future. Even if he keeps a low profile, he's going to be around and the usual suspects will try and criticize us for that. I don't really care to re-litigating the circumstances that ended his tenure at Baylor. I just know that almost every person who makes a big deal of his presence most likely has an agenda that doesn't involve success for Mississippi State and a moral high horse they stable when it suits them. To them I say, go to the Baylor boards and hash it out there.

/rant over

I'm guessing 99.9% of the Starkville public or anywhere else for that matter wouldn't have a clue who he was if they saw him walking down the street, drinking a cup of coffee or sitting at a football game.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I agree with pretty much everything the OP said. I do have one question though, and this is out of character for me, but is there anybody that can tell me what part Lebby actually played in the whole Baylor scandal? I have heard stories ranging from he had little to no involvement other than being part of the staff, and I have also heard he actively tried to cover up the rape of young woman that came to him for help. I just want to know which is true, or what the most likely story is in this case.

 

[Coast_Dawg]

I agree with pretty much everything the OP said. I do have one question though, and this is out of character for me, but is there anybody that can tell me what part Lebby actually played in the whole Baylor scandal? I have heard stories ranging from he had little to no involvement other than being part of the staff, and I have also heard he actively tried to cover up the rape of young woman that came to him for help. I just want to know which is true, or what the most likely story is in this case.

You of all people should know what he did or didn’t do. You would have had a stake in one and not the other. Or maybe you were on vacation during that timeframe.

 

[NawlBennyDawg]

I say put them both in a boxing ring and see who is the real Big Jeff***

 

[johnson86-1]

I agree with pretty much everything the OP said. I do have one question though, and this is out of character for me, but is there anybody that can tell me what part Lebby actually played in the whole Baylor scandal? I have heard stories ranging from he had little to no involvement other than being part of the staff, and I have also heard he actively tried to cover up the rape of young woman that came to him for help. I just want to know which is true, or what the most likely story is in this case.

I've asked several times and don't think anybody has answered. Granted I haven't really tried to find out except that I clicked on one story that supposedly had damning text messages and maybe to people that know the facts, they were damning, but without knowing the facts, it wasn't clear what was so damning about them.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

You of all people should know what he did or didn’t do. You would have had a stake in one and not the other. Or maybe you were on vacation during that timeframe.

I made the point to say I was stepping out of character to ask this question, or at least I thought I did.

 

[Coast_Dawg]

I made the point to say I was stepping out of character to ask this question, or at least I thought I did.

My bad. Misread the way you meant it

 

[LordMcBuckethead]

That other thread Part Deux: Electric Boogaloo!*




For the record, I concur about Simmons and I'm a fan of innocent until proven guilty.

Crazy thing, no one to my knowledge has gone on the record under oath and said that Art KNEW what was going on. Not a single person. They have gone on record saying they know Art held meetings discussing and presentations about the proper ways to treat women.

Terrible situation, but you guys act like this is a Penn State or Bama situation.... or at the very least it isn't as clear cut as that as far as anyone knows.
If it happened, then shame on everyone involved. If it didn't happen, then shame on everyone jumping to conclusions.
Why the heck would a woman come to the coaching staff, and not the police? Seriously. You think any cleat rats even have the ear of the coaching staff?

 

[POTUS]

I agree with pretty much everything the OP said. I do have one question though, and this is out of character for me, but is there anybody that can tell me what part Lebby actually played in the whole Baylor scandal? I have heard stories ranging from he had little to no involvement other than being part of the staff, and I have also heard he actively tried to cover up the rape of young woman that came to him for help. I just want to know which is true, or what the most likely story is in this case.

Wait are you trying to play devil’s advocate!?!?

 

[Prediction? Pain.]

I agree with pretty much everything the OP said. I do have one question though, and this is out of character for me, but is there anybody that can tell me what part Lebby actually played in the whole Baylor scandal? I have heard stories ranging from he had little to no involvement other than being part of the staff, and I have also heard he actively tried to cover up the rape of young woman that came to him for help. I just want to know which is true, or what the most likely story is in this case.

The most concrete allegation I know of is that upon hearing conflicting reports of an RB physically assaulting a female student in 2014, Lebby (the Baylor RB coach at the time) didn't report the incident to anyone else but instead told the RB that he shouldn't have "laid his hands" on her and gave the RB extra workouts to do. The student claimed that she told Lebby about the assault and that she had text messages with Lebby about the incident. The RB denied that he assaulted her, but admitted both that he and the student -- whom he dated at the time -- were involved in a physical altercation and that he, too, discussed the incident with Lebby.

Here's a link to a report by a local news outlet that gives some of the details and here is a summary of the RB's admissions re: talking with Lebby:

Chafin says he spoke to assistant coach Jeff Lebby about the incident.

He says Lebby told him he shouldn't have laid his hands on Lozano, and punished him by giving him extra work with weights in workouts.

Art Briles later suspended and eventually dismissed the RB from the team after a marijuana arrest in 2016, around the same time that the news broke about the RB's 2014 assault allegations.

The female student alleged that the RB assaulted her more in the future and eventually sued Baylor for negligence and Title IX violations. She also added claims of "gross negligence" against Art Briles and Baylor's former President. The case went to trial earlier this year and the student won her claims against Baylor. She did not present her personal claims against Briles and the former Baylor President to the jury because the judge found before trial that she didn't have enough evidence to prove "gross negligence." Here's a link to a 2023 news article summarizing the her testimony at trial.

Regarding the outcome of the trial, the Texas jury found that she proved that the school was "deliberately indifferent" to all her assault reports. She didn't sue Lebby personally, but her accusations against him were part of her negligence claims that she won. Apparently Baylor's attorneys tried to ding her credibility on the Lebby issue, saying that her testimony about him had changed over time. (Not sure whether Lebby testified to refute her accusations. And, again, the RB accused of assault testified and denied that he did the things she said.) Here's an article about her win at trial.

That's the only concrete stuff I know of. To my knowledge, Lebby hasn't been sued individually for anything. An independent law firm created a report regarding Baylor's university-wide failures to handle assault reports properly and Title IX violations, but Baylor hasn't released it or its supporting evidence. Instead, the university issued a 13-page letter based upon the report generally talking about what it did wrong and what it needed to do in the future. It didn't name names, but it did particularly emphasize the football program's failures to handle reports of "sexual" and "dating violence." See pp. 10 - 12 of the letter for more on that. Again, no references to specific coaches or administrators.

ETA: I don't know whether Lebby testified at the recent trial or has otherwise ever spoken about the specifics of the allegations related to him that formed the basis of the student's claims against Baylor.

 

[Perd Hapley]

I agree with pretty much everything the OP said. I do have one question though, and this is out of character for me, but is there anybody that can tell me what part Lebby actually played in the whole Baylor scandal? I have heard stories ranging from he had little to no involvement other than being part of the staff, and I have also heard he actively tried to cover up the rape of young woman that came to him for help. I just want to know which is true, or what the most likely story is in this case.

Full context - there were a total of 19 different football players accused of sexual assault by 17 different victims, including 4 alleged gang rapes. Several criminal sentences resulted, some settlements, and a class action suit was also filed by a group of victims against the university….and it eventually came out that this “rape culture” wasn’t even confined to the football program.

All that being said, the only incident tied to Lebby wasn’t any of these sexual assault cases. It was a domestic violence / assault case in which a female alleged a running back (while Lebby was RB coach) was physically violent on multiple occasions. The RB had a different version of the events. No criminal charges resulted. See the link below.

Disturbing New Allegations about Devin Chafin and Coach Lebby

Less than an hour ago, Joe Schad of ESPN posted on Facebook: Baylor graduate Dolores Lozano says former Baylor running back Devin Chafin assaulted her three times and multiple coaches, including...

www.ourdailybears.com

Lebby’s bigger problems arise from him personally having t-shirts printed in support of Briles in 2016, in the peak news period of the sexual assault scandal. This action prompted protests from activist groups that Baylor needed to cancel the rest of their season. Just not a smart move, no two ways about it. BUT, Lebby was in a unique position compared to any other Baylor coach (even compared to Kendall Briles) where he didn’t have an option to just withdraw and not choose a side. Again, it’s worth putting full context out there.

Then you had the incident from this past season with him parading Briles out on the field in OU gear….which drew a huge backlash. He just hasn’t been very tactful in how he’s handled the aftermath of the whole thing.

 

[BulldogBlitz]

For the record, I concur about Simmons and I'm a fan of innocent until proven guilty.

I'm not. I'd rather damn them all and figure it out later.