Report: Grambling legend lashes out on decision to hire Art Briles

Grambling State University hired former Baylor head coach Art Briles as its offensive coordinator, a university spokesperson confirmed on Thursday, leading to significant backlash from Tigers legend Doug Williams.

Grambling State head coach Hue Jackson, formerly the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, hired Briles to replace former offensive coordinator Ted White, who left to become the Houston Texans’ quarterbacks coach. The hiring marks Briles’ first job in the college ranks since he was fired by Baylor in 2016.

Briles coached for five years at Baylor before his firing in May 2016, after an external investigation concluded that school and football program administrators neglected multiple accusations of sexual assault. Law firm Pepper Hamilton concluded that 17 women reported incidents of sexual assault or sexual violence involving 19 football players; Briles was informed of at least one of the cases, but he did not disclose the information with authorities or school officials. Briles vehemently denied that he withheld information from the university, but Pepper Hamilton wrote in its report that the football team “hindered enforcement of rules and policies, and created a cultural perception that football was above the rules.”

Now, Grambling is losing the support of one of the university’s greatest student-athletes. A four-year starter in the late 1970s, Williams led the Tigers to a 36-7 overall record and won three SWAC championships. He was named the Black College Player of the Year twice, and after leading the NCAA in total yards from scrimmage (3,249), passing yards (3,286), touchdown passes (38) and yards per play (8.6) as a senior, Williams was selected in the first round of the 1978 NFL Draft.

“I’m not a fan (of the Briles hiring) at all. I’m very, very disappointed in Grambling, I really am,” said Williams, who enjoyed a 13-year NFL career, followed by a roughly 30-year career as a coach and administrator. Among his many coaching roles, Williams served two terms as Grambling State’s head football coach (1998-2003, 2011-2013). “I talked to the A.D. a couple times. They knew where I stood, but they did it and if that’s what they want to do, that’s fine. I’m out.”

Williams won both a Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP in his NFL career, and he was named one of the Washington Commanders’ 80 greatest players of all time. He currently serves as a senior adviser to the Commanders, working his way up from personnel executive with the Washington NFL franchise in 2014.

“I know ‘Shack’ (James Harris, another Grambling State alumnus and former NFL player) is not a fan and I’m not a fan at all. I can’t condone it myself,” Williams continued, via The Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala.

When asked to elaborate on being “out,” Williams did not mince words, explaining that he will completely cease any support of his alma mater.

“Oh, no. I can’t do that,” he said. “No, no, no. If I support them, I condone it.”

Briles, who played college football at Houston, spent the first 20 years of his coaching career at the Texas high school ranks. He earned his first college job in 2000, becoming Texas Tech’s running backs coach, before being named Houston’s head coach in 2003, then Baylor’s head coach in 2008. Briles amassed a 99-65 record in 13 seasons as a head coach, including a 65-37 record in five years at Baylor.

Since he was dismissed from Baylor, Briles coached one season in Italy, followed by a two-year stint as the head coach at Texas high school Mount Vernon. He was named the AP Coach of the Year in 2013.

“I’m having a problem with it because other schools would not bite on it, then he’s coming to a Black school like we’ll take him in,” Williams said of the decision to hire Briles. “I have a problem with it, a major problem with it. I can’t support it that’s for sure. That hurt me to my core right there … I know [late] coach [Eddie] Robinson is turning over right now.”