It’s been exactly one year since Art Briles was fired and everything continued to unravel at Baylor. But if you ever doubted whether or not Matt Rhule was the right hire for both on, and off, the field, then you should be able to finally put that doubt to rest.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and Paula Lavigne wrote an extension piece titled, “What lessons has Baylor learned?”
The highlight of the piece was this comment from Coach Rhule:
“I think one thing I’ll say — and I feel very passionately about this — is so often football coaches say, ‘Of course, I’m against rape. I have two young girls.’ To me, it’s not just the fact that I have girls in my life is why I don’t believe in rape. When you communicate like that with football players or any young people, they begin, in my mind, to differentiate between women they know and love and women who they don’t know, and then they don’t place any value on them.
“We talk about what it means to be a man, and a major part of that is not just how to treat your mom, but how to treat all women, the way to be respectful to all women, how to look at women, how to speak to women and how to treat women each and every day.”
It’s a fascinating comment from Matt Rhule, and an angle to the entire “rape discussion” that I’ve never thought about. But he’s spot on.
Rhule has been saying for months he’s not going to run away from the past at Baylor and is ready to face it head on. And guess what? At every turn and with every opportunity, he’s done just that. Handled it with class and integrity. Kudos to Rhule and kudos to Baylor for hitting a home run on a a hire they desperately need to get right.
