Art Briles won’t be coaching in the CFL after all

After some time to consider it, the CFL has changed its mind and won’t allow Art Briles to coach football north of the border.

It was a story when it was announced that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats were hiring Art Briles, the man who left Baylor in the midst of reports of a wide-ranging pattern of sexual misconduct that had gone unheeded while he was in charge of the football program. Now it seems that story isn’t quite over.

Earlier on Monday, the CFL released a statement that the league’s commissioner was talking to the Tiger-Cats about Briles’ hiring. That talk has had the result that Briles’ many detractors no doubt hoped for, as he won’t be heading to Hamilton after all.

The CFL’s second statement of the day was carefully worded but left no doubt about what happened: it really didn’t want Briles there.

"“Art Briles will no longer be joining the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a coach. We came to this decision this evening following a lengthy discussion between the league and the Hamilton organization. We wish Mr. Briles all the best in his future endeavours.”"

It’s not like Briles was going to be head coach, either, just Hamilton’s offensive assistant. From an Xs and Os standpoint, that made sense considering his record of high-scoring attacks at Baylor.

But it’s hard to imagine that Briles’ presence, even in a relatively low profile position, carried the potential for attracting unwanted negative attention on an ongoing basis. The CFL and the Tiger-Cats, mutually or not, decided not to take the risk.