Individual Baylor football players have stood up for ex-Bears head coach Art Briles in the months since he was fired for his role in the school’s sexual assault scandal; now, according to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, the entire team will join the ill-fated movement.
McMurphy says the Baylor football team will wear all-black uniforms during Saturday’s contest against TCU in protest of what they view was Briles’s unjust firing. McMurphy tweeted the information this morning, linking to a private twitter account supporting his claim. The protected tweet in question comes from receiver Chris Platt, who ranks fourth on the team with 260 receiving yards, and is available via Dallas Morning News reporter Ben Baby:
Mo Porter, an offensive lineman for the Bears, also tweeted Friday night about the uniforms, including the hashtag #CAB, or “Coach Art Briles,” which Kendal Briles, a Baylor assistant coach and Briles’ son, wrote on his hands before the Bears’ season-opener.
The #truthdontlie hashtag has become a staple for Briles truthers, who claim the former head coach was a fall guy. This line of thinking is not a new storyline brought upon by this uniform movement; rather, it has been openly touted by Briles himself, former Baylor president Ken Starr (yes, that Ken Starr), and random Bears assistant coaches. Today’s alleged decision by the team to use the uniform as a pro-Briles signal is the culmination of these characters furthering the narrative (unsuccessfully with the public, but apparently successfully in-house) that Briles was an innocent bystander and easy target for the Baylor Board of Regents.
Since McMurphy’s initial report, Platt’s account was changed to public and included a post with the following note, entitled “The Truth,” the same name Baylor gave its website dedicated to selective transparency:
McMurphy added an update of his own after Platt’s note made its rounds, quoting the note and writing “Baylor WR Chris Platt says all-black uniforms are because Bears playing rival TCU & not to protest Art Briles’ firing.”
The Bears’ all-black uniforms can be viewed below: