As the dust settles on the 2017 NCAA college football season a somewhat surprising resignation turned to a shameful hiring by the Texas A&M Aggies. Jimbo Fisher stepped down as head coch of the Florida State Seminoles and wound up inking a 10-year $75 million deal.
It seems the Aggies leadership have quickly forgotten what happpened to the Baylor Bears football program under Art Briles. Yet, a more public situation happened to Fisher while leading the Seminoles with one of their star players, Jameis Winston. The school hindered the invesigation of Winston who got accused of rape twice, which ultimately resulted in a substantial fine for Florida State. Worst of all Fisher admitted in a deposition that he wasn’t aware of the policy on sexual battery.
A report from 2015 indicates that football players at Florida State received special treatment and there were 20 rapes over a nine year period.
Which explains the lack of disicpline when Winston got accused. In most situations a coach will suspend the player indefinitely or remove them from the team until there’s a resolution and that didn’t happen. Winston did wind up in trouble for other things including stealing crab legs and making a crude remark while standing on a table. Since then he has made inappropriate remarks while speaking at an elementary school and has recently been accused of groping an Uber driver with the NFL investigating said incident.
Fisher still continues to defend Winston.
Somehow Fisher made it through the vetting process of Texas A&M. Greg Schiano nearly became the head coach for the Tennessee Volunteers until there were massive protests of the hiring based on his perceived role in the Jerry Sandusky case.
With the MeToo movement and more awareness being brought to sexual assaults and sexual harrassment the hiring of Fisher only proves that to the Aggies winning means more.