AUSTIN, Texas -- Breaking months of public silence, former Baylor football coach Art Briles said Thursday that he did not cover up sexual violence by his players or try to obstruct investigations tied to the assault scandal at the university.
Briles released a one-page letter saying he could no longer "remain silent,'' defending himself against allegations that he ignored incidents of assault and ran a football program that considered itself above the rules.
The letter comes a day after the Texas Rangers, the state's elite criminal investigations unit, said it had opened a preliminary probe into how Baylor handled assault reports over several years.
"I did not cover-up any sexual violence. I had no contact with anyone that claimed to be a victim of sexual or domestic assault. Anyone well-versed in my work as a coach knows that I strove to promote excellence, but never at the sacrifice of safety for anyone,'' Briles wrote. "I did not obstruct justice on campus or off.''
Briles insisted that when alerted to an assault incident, his response was that victims should go to the police so it could be prosecuted.
Briles' remarks Thursday struck a very different tone from apologetic comments he made in an on-camera interview with ESPN's Tom Rinaldi last fall, in which Briles said, among other things, "There were some bad things that happened under my watch," Briles said. "And for that, I'm sorry. ... I was wrong. I'm sorry. I'm going to learn. I'm going to get better."
Baylor officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Baylor faces several federal lawsuits from women who say the university mishandled, ignored or suppressed their claims of assault for years, including several cases involving football players. Briles is named as a defendant in at least one of those.
The school also faces a federal civil rights investigation. Baylor fired Briles in May 2016 and demoted former president Ken Starr, who later resigned, after an outside law firm determined the school had mishandled cases for years. The Pepper Hamilton firm determined that Briles' program acted as if it was "above the rules'' and that unnamed members of Briles' staff had improper contact with victims or witnesses and might have interfered with investigations.
Baylor officials say that investigation found at least 17 women who reported being sexually assaulted by 19 football players, but one lawsuit claiming Baylor fostered a "culture of sexual violence'' puts the number at more than 50 acts of rape over a four-year period. To date, only two of Briles' former players have been tried and convicted of sexual assault, and another is currently charged in a 2016 assault.
Baylor officials last month revealed selected text messages between Briles, assistant coaches and staff members that appear to show them trying to shield players from police and university discipline. In one instance, when shown a list of names of players a woman said attacked her, Briles allegedly responded, "Those are some bad dudes. Why was she around those guys?''
Briles called for "full disclosure'' of what the Pepper Hamilton investigation found. A group of wealthy and powerful Baylor alumni called Bears for Leadership Reform, which includes many Briles supporters, also has called on Baylor's Board of Regents to publicly release the Pepper Hamilton investigation in full.
"(R)umor, innuendo and out of context messages, emails and comments have no place in a true fact-finding mission,'' Briles wrote Thursday. "The key to growth for the school begins with full transparency, not selective messaging.''
McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna told The Dallas Morning News that his office "months ago'' requested interviews and documents collected in the Pepper Hamilton investigation. Reyna did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.