College Football: Art Briles hired, un-hired by CFL in 11-hour span

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats hire and the CFL un-hires Art Briles in an 11-hour time period. Watch Justin Dottavio and Annie Schmidt discuss Art Briles, the Baylor Bears, the CFL, the NFL, and other topics including social media, social justice.

Former Baylor head coach Art Briles was hired by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Monday and within 11 hours that decision was reversed by the CFL itself.

Based on an uproar from social media following the announcement of the hire, the Canadian Football League decided to take matters into its own hands. Would this have happened in the pre-internet days? Probably not.

The Canadian Football League has often toyed with the idea of taking the outcasts of the NFL, and sometimes it has. Ricky Williams served part of his NFL suspension up in Canada. They flirted with Johnny Manziel and Vince Young as well. But a situation as difficult as this one, involving sexual assault cover up allegations, was in extremely poor taste.

Oh yeah, and it was on the same day the Tiger-Cats were hosting their women’s clinic.

When I saw the initial tweet from the guys at FootballScoop, I knew backlash was coming, and deservedly so. It seems callous and almost dangerous to employ Art Briles only 15 months after being fired at Baylor. It seems dangerous to hire him in August when more cover-up allegations surfaced as recent as this March.

This Briles fiasco in the CFL was just diverted.

Watch the Briles discussion below on “Film Don’t Lie” the pilot episode titled Art Briles Goes to Canada (Season 1 Episode 0).

Next: Can Buckeye OC Kevin Wilson fix JT Barrett?

The CFL made the right choice by reversing the decision and sending Briles home packing.