All together
The fraternity of 16 University of Tennessee head coaches met with the media Tuesday to answer questions about the allegations about the culture in the UT Knoxville.
It was unprecedented. And it was incomplete, since UT AD Dave Hart was a no show. (Here’s TFP ace columnist Mark Wiedmer’s excellent column on how the Vols top boss needed to be there. Barring some sort of Grade-A family emergency, Hart absolutely should have been with his direct employees in this moment. Well-done, Weeds.)
The culture has come under question because of the Title IX lawsuit filed two weeks ago in Nashville with six females saying the culture of sexual assault within the athletic department.
About five hours after the called news conference, lawyers told a Knoxville TV station that two more Jane Does were going to be added to lawsuit with claims of sexual assault against two more UT football players.
The sign of solidarity among the UT coaches has been met with mixed reviews.
There are those praising the solidarity and, as Weeds wrote, by all accounts the vast majority of the student-athletes in Knoxville are fine folks.
There are those asking why did the rest of the athletic department need to do this, since Jones pretty much aced his run before the media on Saturday and then again on CNN on Sunday.
There also are those who are wondering what kind of message this sends to potential victims, considering a vast majority of these kinds of acts go unreported. If you were attacked by an athlete, seeing that collection of UT firepower up there arm-in-arm saying there’s no problem and this is overblown, could certainly be viewed as a deterrent to reporting it.
To be fair, Jones mentioned the victims on multiple occasions, so there’s that.
We wrote last week about the need for Butch Jones to grab the mic and speak about his program. He has now done so three times, and on Tuesday brought a lot of friends.
It was a strong visual image, 16 coaches decked out in a variety of UT gear pitching the same message.
That message was more Lego Movie – “Everything is Awesome” – than leverage, but how does that image and message change considering that two more football players were linked to sexual assault before Jones and Co. had dinner on Tuesday?
Or potentially did Jones and Co. know another round of this was coming and wanted to be out in front of the next wave of narrative. For the mostr part, our column last week about the culture there was one of the few we saw. It also was met with a bunch of criticism from Johnny Vols Fans everywhere.
That’s OK, that’s part of the gig.
But Jones and Holly Warlick and Dave Serrano and every other UT coach from The General to Wade Houston could convene a news conference with the Pope and the Easter Bunny, and the numbers are the numbers.
If two more football players are added to the Title IX lawsuit that would make seven football players in the lawsuit – plus recent arrests of former player Mack Crowder and incoming recruit Alexis Johnson – that makes nine players involved in less than three years.
So the coaches are content with the culture, and many people from Weeds to Wes Rucker whom we trust who are around the UT program a lot vouch for it.
That really counts for something in our mind.
So do the numbers, and in this case 9 may be greater than 16.
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Peyton
UT and Peyton Manning’s attorneys want the former star quarterback and future NFL Hall of Famer’s name removed from the Title IX lawsuit, according to this article in the Knoxville News Sentinel.
The reasoning is pretty sound. It happened 20 years ago with a collection of people who are no longer involved in the program, which seems pretty pertinent considering the lawsuit is about the current culture.
But the new twists in the allegations made 20 years ago Manning and the multiple settlements paid to former UT trainer Jamie Naughright continue. This story from Denver drills a whole lot of holes in Naughright’s story and allegations.
It also alleges that she was the source for Shaun King, the New York writer who re-ignited this story from Manning exposing himself in the locker room at UT 20 years ago.
Also, Clay Travis of Fox Sports has claims about how this is another money grab from Naughright, and says her house is in foreclosure.
If she did go to King, then she could be found guilty of violating the confidentiality agreement.
Part of the discourse here is that the original act happened pre-social media. Imagine the Tweets and GIFs if Manning had mooned/whatever Naughright two years ago rather than two decades ago?
But, that quote-unquote anonymity back then is a two way street. Sadly, Naughright would have been painted in a negative light too. In fact, 20 years later, as Manning’s image is being questions, Naughright’s character also is being dragged into the spotlight, and the pictures are not pretty.
There are several social media posts – and now people claiming to have audio recordings of Naughright – that really hurt her credibility. Does that change anything that happened? Not really. But it certainly questions her motives and the reliability of her claims.
So reviewing what we know (as opposed to what has been alleged):
Jamie Naughright was a trainer at UT.
Peyton Manning was a quarterback at UT.
Something happened between the two of them in the locker room.
UT paid her $300,000 (a settlement after she made 33 claims of sexual harassment and assault during her time working for UT, and Manning was only one of those).
The Mannings settled with her after she sues that their book “The Mannings” violated the confidentiality agreement.
King, a renowned race-baiter, breaks the interweb with his story the Saturday after the Super Bowl.
Now, the accusations are flying.
Oh, yeah, there’s one more thing we know: We are ready for this story to go away, once and for all.
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SEC hoops
Crazy night around the SEC in hoops.
Here’s the recap:
Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis is really good at basketball. How’s this for a stat line: 19 points, 10 assists, five boards, three steals and just one turnover. Ben Simmons is the best player in the country, and Ulis deserves the SEC player of the year award. (With a large tip of the fedora to LSU coach Johnny Jones.)
Alabama’s Retin Obasohan was great last night. He had 29 in the loss at Kentucky. Kid has made himself a legitimate shooter and added some other offensive skills. (Side note: Avery Johnson is doing big things at Alabama, and if Ulis is the player of the year, Johnson is the coach of the year. With another large tip of the fedora to Johnny Jones.)
LSU got housed 85-65 by Arkansas, the same team that lost to Auburn at home last week. LSU should be a top-four seed in the tournament and they are staring at the NIT. Simmons, the transcendental freshman had 23 points (on nine shots; NINE shots for Pete’s sake), 12 boards and six assists.
Vandy kept its flickering NCAA tournament hopes alive with a huge win at Florida last night. Vandy hosts Kentucky on Saturday night, and Press Row will give away two tickets today or tomorrow for that game. So listen in, from 3-6 p.m., on ESPN 105.1 The Zone and right here at timesfreepress.com.
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This and that
– The combine starts today. So there’s that.
– Over the weekend in a college baseball game, UNLV freshman Chase Maddux faced Texas infielder Kody Clemens. Yep, their dads combined for a tidy 709 wins in their big league careers.
– As college hoops numbers continue to dwindle, the NBA TV numbers are growing. Through seven games this season, the NBA on ABC is up 9 percent compared to last year. (Yes, Steph Curry and the Warriors help. A lot.)
– Former WWE regular Jim Ross has joined CBS Sports as a boxing announcer, according to the Charlotte Observer, and will start with a bout March 12.
– Chicago Cubs as World Series favorites? Yes, that’s the world in which we live.
– UTC basketball coach Matt McCall was very interesting on Press Row on Tuesday afternoon. If you missed the first-year Mocs boss talking about at-large bids, focus, and how he thinks his team can play with (and beat) anyone, you can find the podcast at espnchattanooga.com.
– This ESPN article tells us that the Auburn quarterback job is wide open entering the spring. Well, after watching Auburn play last year, the next article will delve into the water-is-wet conspiracy theory.
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Today’s question
Interesting birthday today, as Phil Knight (he’s 78) and Steve Jobs (he would have been 61) were born on this day. Man, are there two more monolithic companies of our generation than Nike and Apple? If Zuckerburg was a Feb. 24 baby too, then, wow.
Side note: On this day two of the funniest people of our lifetime – Don Knotts (in 2007) and Harold Ramis (in 2014) – died. Keep your head on a swivel Eddie Murphy.
OK, what’s our Rushmore of best NFL combine performances? Chris Johnson running a 4.24 40 and sprinting into the first round comes to mind.
Go, and remember the mailbag.