This mess lies at Mitchell’s feet
It was a contrite, almost passive, mea-culpa-delivering Scott Mitchell throwing himself on the mercy of the court of public opinion the day after the earthquake hit.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats CEO acknowledged he misread the situation as it came to the hiring of Art Briles. He admitted he and the organization made a serious mistake. He called it a poor decision.
“Clearly, what was being contemplated was totally unacceptable to the general public and the media,” he said. Clearly. In short, he said all the things a person in his shoes has to say to hopefully quell a firestorm that had enveloped this franchise over the previous 24 hours. Say sorry, say we’ve learned lessons, say it’ll never happen again and hope people forget about it and get on with their lives.
Maybe they’ll even buy some tickets and team merchandise.
There’s no question this admission had to happen. Some will even applaud it.
But let’s not forget that the Hamilton Ticats — with Mitchell admitting the ultimate responsibility falls on him — made the decision to cut Briles loose only after the public and the media and at least one sponsor and the league started screaming. Had that not happened, Briles would have been wearing black and gold and running practice today.
In short, the Ticats saw nothing wrong with hiring him. It was us in the media and you with your Twitter and Facebook accounts that made this an issue, he seemed to be saying. It was really just a timing and message problem. In that light, the backtracking, apologies and response looked less about doing what was right and more about doing what was best to protect a brand that was taking a pounding.
“We underestimated the tsunami of negativity that was going to happen,” Mitchell told The Fan 590 radio station on Tuesday.
How is that even possible? Just go online and there are plenty of stories outlining the Baylor sexual assault fiasco. Written well before Monday. Heck, there’s an entire book written about it that was conveniently released just this week. Even team owner Bob Young tweeted on Tuesday: “We should not have been surprised by the reaction.” No kidding. Yet, Mitchell says he was. He said the decision makers (again, led by him) got caught up in football stuff as they tried to find ways to repair the floundering team and give “a good man that was caught in a very bad situation” a compassionate second chance, losing sight of real-life issues along the way.
“I think we got wrapped up a little bit too much in the inner sanctum of football decisions and forgot about important things like our standing in the community and how this reflects upon the franchise,” Mitchell said.
Here’s the problem. Mitchell says they did a lot of information gathering before hiring Briles. So he knew the background. He knew the issues.
As a result, he had to know Baylor University and an independent investigation discovered horrible things happened under Briles’ watch.
But Mitchell says he had other information. He apparently knew better.
No NCAA schools or NFL teams reached out to offer Briles a second chance because they understood his name and his legacy were toxic. Yet Mitchell apparently knew better.
When all of this (generally, anyway) was presented to Mitchell during an interview with The Spectator’s Drew Edwards on Monday, he actually doubled down and took an even firmer stand.
As this was happening, media across North America from ESPN to TMZ were offering near-universal condemnation of the hire to the point where USA Today was calling the Ticats “clueless” and Sports Illustrated said the team was “the most tone-deaf franchise in the world.” Almost everyone thought this was a bad idea. Still, Mitchell apparently knew better than all of them.
Women’s groups and sexual assault support groups expressed their concern and dismay at the message this was sending. Mitchell apparently knew better.
Former CFL players took to social media with dismay. Mitchell apparently knew better.
And average people — fans and non-fans — in this city, this province, this country and across North America loudly recognized this was unseemly at best and voiced their outrage. Until Monday, at least, Mitchell apparently knew better than all of them.
The fact that the CFL (a league that proudly wore Diversity is Strength T-shirts during recent games and has rightly positioned itself as a champion of social issues) stepped in to guide Mitchell away from the third rail doesn’t help. To the contrary. The fact that the CEO couldn’t see for himself how far down a wrong path he was going is troubling.
The fact that he eventually softened and admitted his error when it was obvious this wasn’t going to blow over doesn’t undo everything, either.
This was a blunder that was entirely predictable. And it wasn’t just an unpopular decision like overcharging for beer or a hotdog. This was a defiant move that was tone deaf to a devastating social problem which made it both offensive and hurtful to many.
Bob Young likes to call himself The Caretaker because he’s in charge of a team that is emotionally a public trust. But after this decision, who exactly is he taking care of? The community or his CEO?
As for Mitchell, perhaps he really has learned from this. Let’s hope so. In the meantime though, he’s embarrassed his boss, his franchise, his league and worst of all, the city he represents. There’s simply not enough PR Febreeze to take the stink off this mess. Because of that, it’s time for Scott Mitchell to go.
sradley@thespec.com 905-526-2440 | @radleyatthespec Spectator columnist Scott Radley hosts The Scott Radley Show weeknights 7-9 on 900CHML.