CFL’s Tiger-Cats change their mind, announce ex-Baylor coach Art Briles won’t join them as assistant

Not even a half day after former Baylor coach Art Briles was announced as an assistant coach for the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Monday, the league and the team chose to rescind that offer.

Amid public pressure from fans and sponsors alike, the CFL and Tiger-Cats released a joint statement Monday night announcing Briles would not be coaching north of the border after all.

“Art Briles will no longer be joining the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a coach,” the statement read. “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.”

Briles, 61, was fired by Baylor last summer as part of a response to the scandal involving university leaders’ handling of sexual assault allegations against some Bears football players. During an interview with ESPN in September, Briles referred to “some bad things that went on under my watch” at Baylor.

In December, Briles sued several Baylor officials on libel and slander grounds, accusing them of falsely stating he knew of reported assaults and alleged gang rapes by some of his players and didn’t report them. He dropped the suit in February.

Briles coached the Bears to back-to-back Big 12 championships in 2013-14. In addition to his eight years as head coach at Baylor, he held the same position at Houston for five years and led the Cougars to a Conference USA title.

With the Tiger-Cats, Briles would have been coaching under former Atlanta Falcons head coach June Jones, who was hired by Hamilton last week.

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UPDATES:

9:30 p.m.: This article was updated with the Tiger-Cats’ reversal.

This article was originally published at 9:45 a.m.