Art Briles, former head football coach of Baylor, has withdrawn his libel lawsuit against his former school after members on the board of regents and Vice President made claims insinuating that he knew of multiple incidents of sexual assault and gang rapes by his players but failed to report them.
Briles’ suit was initially filed in December in which he insisted the claims had damaged his good reputation and threatened his potential of being hired by another school. The former coach was seeking an amount in excess of $1 million. He alleged that Baylor regents chairman Ronald Murff, board members J. Cary Gray and David Harper, and Baylor Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Reagan Ramsower disseminated the informationin an attempt to discredit him.
Briles was fired last May once an investigation determined Baylor, the nation’s largest Baptist university, mishandled reports of sexual misconduct by their football players. Baylor then released a statement, saying there were “specific failings within both the football program and athletics department leadership, including a failure to identify and respond to a pattern of sexual violence by a football player and to a report of dating violence.”
“All he wanted was his good name,” Briles’ lawyer Ernest Cannon told KWTX-TV in Waco, Texas.
