Hue Jackson wanted to hire Art Briles, and so he did. It is a simple answer for a complicated situation.
Jackson was allowed to hire Briles as his offensive coordinator at Grambling State—though make no mistake, there are multiple people who had to O.K. this on both the athletics side and the university side. Briles and Jackson’s working relationship goes back to at least 2016, when Jackson—then the head coach for the Cleveland Browns—brought Briles in during training camp and the regular season as a guest coach just months after Briles was fired by Baylor following an investigation into his and the school’s handling of a number of sexual assault allegations. Whenever Jackson decides to speak publicly of his decision to hire Briles, you will undoubtedly hear the typical brushing under the rug of Briles’s transgressions. Jackson already did that in ’16, when he said of inviting Briles in, “We’ve all been knocked down, including myself” to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jackson’s boss, athletic director Trayveon Scott, told ESPN in part about Briles, "I think the guy just wants to coach and lead men." But no matter how much contrition Briles may say in the aftermath of this hiring does not change the fact that the last time he led men he presided over a culture with rampant sexual violence toward women, including a former student’s lawsuit alleging at least 52 acts of rape committed by 31 football players from 2011 to ’14. And yet here he is, allowed to lead men again.
