New texts roil Baylor football

Ex-Baylor football coach Art Briles and other former athletic officials tried to keep misconduct by football players under the radar, a new court filing alleged Thursday, a day after the coach dropped his libel suit against school officials.

The filing, which came in response to a lawsuit by a former assistant athletic director, includes damning texts between Briles and other athletics officials as they dealt with multiple allegations against football players between 2011 and 2015.

When a female studentathlete reported that a football player had brandished a gun at her, the response said, Briles texted an assistant coach: “what a fool — she reporting to authorities.”

In another case, where a masseuse asked the team to discipline a player who reportedly exposed himself and asked for favors during a massage, the paperwork said Briles’ first response was, “What kind of discipline … She a stripper?”

The filing also laid out the athletic department’s response to allegations of gang rape by football players, including when a student-athlete told her coach that five players had raped her at an off-campus party. Then-athletics director Ian McCaw took a list of names to Briles, who said: “Those are some bad dudes. Why was she around those guys?”

Defense lawyers accuse Briles of creating an atmosphere that allowed wrongdoing by players to go unnoticed. “The football program was a black hole into which reports of misconduct such as drug use, physical assault, domestic violence, brandishing of guns, indecent exposure and academic fraud disappeared,” the court filing said.

Briles’ attorney did not return a request for comment.