Briles testifies: Didn’t know of allegations in 2014
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Paula Lavigne, ESPN Staff Writer
WACO, Texas — Former Baylor football coach Art Briles testified Thursday that he had no knowledge of the domestic violence allegations made by a former student against one of his players in 2014 until she filed a lawsuit two years later, although members of his staff knew about those claims — and reports of other issues — involving the former player.
Briles is a defendant in a Title IX and negligence trial in which Baylor alumna Dolores Lozano alleges being physically assaulted by then-Bears player Devin Chafin in 2014. Baylor University and ex-athletic director Ian McCaw are also defendants in the federal case.
Lozano, now an elected justice of the peace in Harris County, Texas, reported that Chafin physically assaulted her three times in March and April 2014, after the two, who had been dating, argued over an abortion Lozano had earlier that year.
Lozano alleges that the university’s overall failure to implement Title IX and address sexual violence put her at risk for assault and that the university, Briles and McCaw failed to properly respond to her report and caused her to be subjected to further abuse by Chafin.
Briles and McCaw first appeared in court Thursday — the fourth day of testimony — and did not answer questions about Lozano’s claims as they walked into the federal courthouse.
Multiple Baylor women have filed complaints and lawsuits against Baylor stemming from the school’s overall failures to address reports of sexual violence and the 2016 findings by law firm Pepper Hamilton that found problems in multiple university departments. The findings highlighted specific issues with the football program and led to the firing of Briles, suspension and eventual resignation of McCaw and demotion of former president Ken Starr, who died in 2022. Lozano’s is the only lawsuit from that time to make it to trial, and it is unique in that it names McCaw and Briles as individual defendants.
During testimony, when it came to football facts, Briles rattled off details with precision, even checking an attorney when he said Baylor won the Big 12 championship in 2014 by noting the Bears had actually shared that title with TCU.
But for much of his testimony, Briles pleaded ignorance. He said he had “no awareness” of Title IX when he started at Baylor in 2007 and didn’t receive any Title IX training until fall 2014. When Lozano’s attorney started to question him on something in his 2014 book, “Beating Goliath,” which is written in first-person, Briles said he didn’t know because he hadn’t read the book.
He also said he wasn’t familiar with his 2017 defamation lawsuit against three members of the board of regents, saying he “had a lawyer” and at one point he asked an attorney for Lozano, Zeke Fortenberry, “Did the suit go through?” to which Fortenberry responded, “You dismissed it.”
As for Chafin, Briles said he hadn’t been aware of Chafin’s driving under the influence arrest in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 2012, for which strength and conditioning coach Kaz Kazadi had Chafin do extra workouts. Fortenberry also presented him with a letter — with Briles’ signature — to the NCAA appealing an eligibility decision for Chafin.
“I think this is about some academic issues,” Briles said. “I would assume one of the academic advisors wrote this on Devin’s behalf and had me sign it. It’s way too in-depth for something I would write.”
Briles said he might not be very aware of minor infractions by his players but that he would have been aware of any felony-level incident or major allegations. He said much of the responsibility for discipline fell to Kazadi, who would subject the players to extra workouts, hold them out of some activities and make them show up early, but he was unaware of any written policy.
Fortenberry named four people in the football program who he said knew about Lozano’s reported assaults in 2014, including Kazadi, McCaw, assistant coach Jeff Lebby and chaplain Wes Yeary. Briles said not one of them informed him. When questioned by his own attorney, Briles said he first heard of Lozano when she filed her lawsuit, which was in October 2016.
“If all four of your staff members knew about it, should you have known about it?” Fortenberry asked.
“Yes, sir,” Briles said.
One of the findings from the Pepper Hamilton sexual assault investigations was that football had its own disciplinary system and acted “above the rules” of the school’s judicial affairs office.
Briles said there was “a little bit of a misunderstanding” between the football program and judicial affairs, being concerned about players getting expelled for first-offense marijuana violations or getting kicked out of student housing for other infractions. But he said the football program didn’t have a disciplinary system separate from the university.
Briles said he did “give a few student-athletes” the name of Waco attorney Jonathan Sibley, who Briles had said offered his services to the program for any athletes who might need help.
Fortenberry also presented Briles with text messages he had exchanged with coaches and other Baylor employees, most of whom had been made public in the 2017 defamation lawsuit, in which he was responding to other football players who were involved in criminal incidents.
The various text messages were presented as proof that Briles and others in the department tried to keep athletes away from judicial affairs, arrange attorneys for them and keep their alleged crimes under wraps.
In one April 2011 message, Briles texted with an assistant coach about a player who had received a ticket for underage drinking and he responded, “Hopefully he’s under the radar” so no one will recognize his name, and later, “just trying to keep him away from our judicial affairs folks.”
Briles testified that the player was a 19-year-old from “very minimal means” and he was worried that a sanction from judicial affairs would cause him to lose his on-campus housing.
At one point, Briles got emotional and paused for a long time before attempting to answer a question, needing to pull out a tissue to dab at his eyes. He was being asked about earlier testimony from McCaw, who said that in the days before Briles was fired in May 2016, the ex-chairman of the Baylor board of regents said that Briles was “going to take the fall” when the investigation findings were released.
Throughout the trial, Briles’ attorneys have repeatedly asked Baylor regents and others if Briles violated any policy or actively tried to discourage anyone from reporting an assault or covering up an assault, and every answer has been no.
In testimony earlier in the week, former regent J. Carey Gray said Briles was not fired because of any specific incident or action but because the board did not feel he was the right person to make the necessary culture changes to lead the board forward.
An attorney for Baylor, while questioning Briles about a presentation used to teach athletes about how to be respectful to women, asked him, “Is this something you were trying to instill in your players?” Briles said it was. “Do you recognize sometimes that fell short?”
Briles responded: “Yes.”
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Bradford Doolittle
Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, falling one vote shy of unanimous selection, and he’ll be joined in the Class of 2025 by starting pitcher CC Sabathia and closer Billy Wagner.
Suzuki, who got 393 of 394 votes in balloting of the Baseball Writers Association of America, would have joined Yankees great Mariano Rivera (2019) as the only unanimous selections. Instead, Suzuki’s 99.746% of the vote is second only to Derek Jeter’s 99.748% (396 of 397 ballots cast in 2020) as the highest plurality for a position player in Hall of Fame voting, per the BBWAA.
“There was a time when I didn’t even get a chance to play in the MLB,” Suzuki told MLB TV. “So what an honor it is to be for me to be here and be a Hall of Famer.”
Suzuki collected 2,542 of his 3,089 career hits as a member of the Seattle Mariners. Before that, he collected 1,278 hits in the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan, giving him more overall hits (4,367) than Pete Rose, MLB’s all-time leader.
Suzuki did not debut in MLB until he was 27 years old, but he exploded on the scene in 2001 by winning Rookie of the Year and MVP honors in his first season, leading Seattle to a record-tying 116 regular-season wins.
Suzuki and Sabathia finished first and second in 2001 voting for American League Rookie of the year and later were teammates for two seasons with the Yankees.
Sabathia, who won 251 career games, was also on the ballot for the first time. He was the 2007 AL Cy Young winner while with Cleveland and a six-time All-Star. His 3,093 career strikeouts make him one of 19 members of the 3,000-strikeout club. He was named on 86.8% of the ballots
Wagner’s 422 career saves — 225 of which came with the Houston Astros — are the eighth-most in big league history. His selection comes in his 10th and final appearance on the BBWAA ballot, earning 82.5% for the seven-time All-Star.
Just falling short in the balloting was outfielder Carlos Beltran, who was named on 70.3% of ballots, shy of the 75% threshold necessary for election.
Beltran won 1999 AL Rookie of the Year honors while with Kansas City. He went on to make nine All-Star teams and become one of five players in history with at least 400 homers and 300 stolen bases.
A key member and clubhouse leader of the controversial 2017 World Series champion Astros, whose legacy was tainted by a sign-stealing scandal, Beltran’s selection would have bode well for other members of that squad who will be under consideration in the years to come.
Also coming up short was 10-time Gold Glove outfielder Andruw Jones, who was named on 76.2% of the ballots. Jones saw an uptick from last year’s total (61.6%) and still has two more years of ballot eligibility remaining.
PED-associated players on the ballot didn’t make much headway in the balloting. Alex Rodriguez finished with 37.1%, while Manny Ramirez was at 34.3%.
The three BBWAA electees will join Dick Allen and Dave Parker, who were selected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee in December, in being honored at the induction ceremony on July 27 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, New York.
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Ryan McGee
ATLANTA — The 2025 edition of the College Football Playoff National Championship game was not about vengeance. It wasn’t about proving people wrong. Nor was it about wadding up a scarlet and gray rag and stuffing it directly into the mouths of the chorale of outside noise.
Bless their hearts, that’s what the Ohio State football team and coaching staff kept telling us. That beating Notre Dame on Monday night and winning the school’s first national title in a decade wasn’t about any of that stuff.
But yeah, it totally was.
“We worked really hard to tune out the outside noise, truly,” confessed Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, words spoken on the field moments after having a national champions T-shirt pulled over his shoulders and punctuated by slaps to those shoulders from his current teammates as well as Buckeyes of days gone by. “But outside noise can also be a great way to bring a team together. You close the doors to the locker room to lock all that out, bunker down together and go to work. That’s what it did for us. I think anyone on this team will tell you that.”
Well, now they will. Finally.
The “it’s not about that” mantra was what the Buckeyes kept repeating, in unison, beginning way back in the summer weeks leading into a campaign when they were voted No. 2 in the nation in both preseason polls. Those expectations were earned in no small part because of a much-hyped offseason, powered by an NIL shopping spree worth $20 million, according to athletic director Ross Bjork, to lure transfers from around the nation.
We were told that, no, it wasn’t about those players justifying their decisions to change teams. Like Howard, who came to Ohio State from Kansas State, and running back Quinshon Judkins, who became a Buckeye after carrying the football at Ole Miss. Both are still viewed as traitors by many at the places they departed. But no, it was never about sending a message that they were right to pack up and move to Columbus.
Yeah, right.
“When people asked me why I left Ole Miss to come here, my answer was always the same: To go somewhere that I could win a national championship,” said Judkins, who scored three of Ohio State’s four touchdowns against the Fighting Irish. He grew up one state over from the site of the CFP title game, 270 miles away in Montgomery, Alabama. “Now, that championship has happened. And I’m not going to lie: To do it back here in the South, in Atlanta, in front of so many people who have known about me all the way back to high school, that makes it even more special.”
We were told that, no, it wasn’t about the all-star coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who once served as head coach with the Oregon Ducks, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers and left the same gig at UCLA to take a demotion at Ohio State. In no way was this winter about proving that Kelly hadn’t lost the edge that once had him hailed as a mastermind of modern football offenses.
Um, OK.
“For me, it feels good to have fun again,” said Kelly, 61, flashing a face-splitter grin rarely seen during his NFL and UCLA tenures. Buckeyes coach Ryan Day, 45, is a Kelly protégé, having been coached by Kelly as a New Hampshire player. Kelly’s playcalling that has been a CFP bulldozer scored touchdowns on Ohio State’s first four drives. “I never forgot how to coach. But maybe I forgot how to have fun at the job.”
“I know this,” Kelly added, laughing. “It’s a lot more fun when you’re moving the football and winning.”
And, man, we were told so many times that in no way was this season or postseason about hitting a reset button on the perception of Day, in his sixth season as the leader of an Ohio State football program that is second to none when it comes to pride but also exceeded by none when it comes to pressure. Day dipped deep from that “Guys, it’s not about me” well on the evening of Nov. 30, after his fourth straight regular-season defeat at the hands of arch nemesis Michigan. When the Buckeyes were awarded an at-large berth in the newly expanded 12-team CFP, he once again implored to anyone who would listen that the narrative of his team’s postseason should be about its destiny rather than the future of the coach.
For a month of CFP games and days, all the way up until Monday’s kickoff, Day reminded us all that none of this was about him. Even though a security detail was assigned to his home in Columbus ever since the Michigan game. Even as the internet was aflame with posts about his job security and memes questioning his choice of beard dyes. Even as, in the days leading into the title game, his wife opened up to a Columbus TV station about the family’s dealings with death threats.
And even as, during the championship game itself, Ohio State’s seemingly insurmountable lead shrank from 31-7 midway through the third quarter to a scant eight points in the closing minutes.
But as the clock finally hit zeroes and the scoreboard read “Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 23” with OSU-colored confetti raining down over the Buckeyes’ heads, the story — as told by the team itself — was indeed suddenly about Day, and his staff, and his players, and their shared personification of the T-shirts and flags worn by so many of their supporters among the 77,660 in attendance: “OHIO AGAINST THE WORLD.”
Even if, for them, sometimes Ohio’s flagship football team found itself up against a not-insignificant percentage of Ohio itself, including the folks who refused to attend the CFP opener in Columbus because they were still mad about the Michigan defeat and no doubt will still consider this natty as having an asterisk because of that same loss.
Because for all of Day & Co.’s talk of this not being about revenge, the truth was revealed on their postgame faces. Their shared expressions of restraint, the ones we’d seen all fall, were instantly replaced by a collective look of relief. Their frowns washed away by Gatorade dumps, revealing the smiles of men who had indeed just sent a message and were finally willing to admit that had been their motivation all along.
You only had to ask. Because, finally, they would answer.
“I feel like, from the start of this thing, we were knocking on the door. But you have to find a way to break through and make it to where we are right now,” said Day, no longer stiff-arming the question but definitely still working to stifle his emotion. “In this day and age, there’s so much noise. Social media. People have to write articles. But when you sign up for this job, when you agree to coach at Ohio State, that’s part of the job.
“I’m a grown-up. I can take it. But the hard part is your family having to live with it. The players you bring in, them having to live with it. Their families. In the end, that’s how you build a football family. Take the stuff that people want to use to tear you apart and try to turn that into something that makes you closer.”
For 3 hours and 20 minutes, the Buckeyes pushed back on Notre Dame with both hands. They also pushed back on those would-be team destroyers and head coach firers. When it was over, they extended one finger in the direction of those same haters. It wasn’t a middle finger, but it was close. It was the finger that soon will be fitted for a national championship ring.
“Ohio State might not be for everybody,” Day added, smiling once again. “But it’s certainly for these guys.”
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Max Olson
Ohio State transfer quarterback Devin Brown has signed with Cal, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
After winning a national championship with the Buckeyes on Monday night, Ohio State’s No. 2 quarterback is seeking an opportunity to start and will move on to join the Golden Bears. Brown has two more seasons of eligibility.
Brown entered the NCAA transfer portal on Dec. 9 but remained with the team during their College Football Playoff run.
The redshirt sophomore was the No. 81 overall recruit in the ESPN 300 for 2022 and lost a competition with Kyle McCord for Ohio State’s starting job entering the 2023 season. This season, Brown appeared in nine games while backing up Will Howard.
Brown threw for 331 yards with three touchdowns and one interception on 56% passing and rushed for 37 yards and one score over three seasons at Ohio State. He earned one start in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at the end of the 2023 season but exited with an ankle injury in a 14-3 loss to Missouri.
After losing to the Tigers, Ohio State coach Ryan Day brought in Howard, a Kansas State transfer who guided the program to its first College Football Playoff national championship since 2014. Howard earned offensive MVP honors in the Buckeyes’ 34-23 title game victory over Notre Dame after competing 17-of-21 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns.
The Buckeyes are losing Howard, Brown and freshman backup Air Noland, who transferred to South Carolina, as they begin preparations to defend their national title in 2025. Julian Sayin, a former five-star recruit, is expected to be the frontrunner in the Buckeyes’ quarterback competition entering his redshirt freshman season.
Brown is joining a Cal team coming off a 6-7 run through its first year in the ACC that must replace starter Fernando Mendoza, who transferred to Indiana. Brown will compete with touted incoming freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who joined the program after a brief stint at Oregon.
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