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Having Art Briles at practice isn’t the best idea

By Steven Kubitza

Nov 14, 2015; Waco, TX, USA; Baylor Bears head coach Art Briles looks on against the Oklahoma Sooners during the first half at McLane Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 14, 2015; Waco, TX, USA; Baylor Bears head coach Art Briles looks on against the Oklahoma Sooners during the first half at McLane Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /
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Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson invited former Baylor head coach Art Briles to attend some practices this week. Is this a smart move at this point in time?

With a record of 0-5, the Cleveland Browns need to avoid distractions and just focus on football to try to pick up that elusive first victory of the season.

To help with the offense, Hue Jackson invited Art Briles to practice this week. Briles, who was fired in May amid allegations that he helped cover-up sexual assault by members of his Baylor football team, is a bit of a pariah in the coaching world right now. He has not been proven guilty, but it seems his best choice would be to stay out of coaching until he is ultimately proven innocent. It may not be fair, but the allegations are serious and he seems to be failing to realize that fact.

But while Briles’ name may draw correlations to the situation at Baylor, Jackson just wants to focus on football, and that is the exact problem.

Hue Jackson is just trying to help out his football team, so he brought in Briles to help with the offense. From a strictly football standpoint, this makes perfect sense. But he is failing to realize just how toxic Briles’ name is right now not just in football, but in America in general.

Having Briles on your staff, even if only temporarily, is just not a good look with the allegations at Baylor being so fresh in the minds of many Americans. Trying to focus on football is a noble idea by Jackson, but it is just too soon to move on from the situation.

Briles’ best option would be to stay home and let the strong feelings surrounding the allegations pass over. If he really is as innocent as he claims, time should prove this and allow him to get back into coaching in a few years. However, if he gets another job and he is proven to be at fault, it could be a disaster for whoever decided to bring him on board.

Time will not completely heal what happened at Baylor, but it will allow the general public to begin to move past the allegations, as long as nothing comes out proving Briles’ guilt.

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This is a messy situation that may take time, so having Briles as a visible figure at practice is not a smart move by Hue Jackson and the rest of the Browns organization.

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