Breaking news: Creepy entitled white guy in position of power does creepy things. I feel like I’ve written this story a few times already. Les Miles, the former head football coach at LSU, apparently has quite the list of very inappropriate behavior with female students at LSU, and the athletic department decided to then give him millions of dollars and keep him around anyways.
According to USA Today, the internal investigation done by LSU was conducted (rather quietly) in 2013. Miles was the head coach at LSU until 2016. He is currently the head coach at the University of Kansas.
USA Today reported that the accusations against Miles include texting female students, taking them to his condo alone, making them feel uncomfortable and, on at least one occasion, kissing a student and suggesting they go to a hotel after telling her he could help her career.
Also in the report is the fact that Miles is absolutely fucking disgusting. From the article:
Miles strongly denied kissing the girl, according to the report. He said that he did nothing wrong and was simply mentoring young women at the university.
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Miles also was accused by athletic department staff of saying that the female student workers who helped the football team lure top recruits needed to be attractive, blonde and fit, according to the investigative report. Existing student employees who did not meet this criteria should be given fewer hours or terminated, the report details.
In 2013, the university essentially said, “Well, we don’t really know what happened, so I guess everything is fine.” According to USA Today, LSU’s internal report said that they “are unable to determine what occurred” in Miles’ car, where the woman said Miles had kissed her twice. Since the school couldn’t prove (or didn’t want to prove) what had happened, they slapped Miles on the wrist, made him read the employee handbook, told him to stay away from girls, and promise to be a good boy and never do it again.
The university ordered him to stop hiring student employees to babysit (which should have been a no-no to begin with — gross), cease being alone with them (also gross), and attend eight, one-hour sessions with an attorney and pay for it. In 2013, Miles and LSU took steps to ensure the records remained secret, according to a letter released with the investigative report. In it, attorneys for LSU tell Miles that should anyone request it, the school would fight the release in court.
That same year, LSU gave Miles a new contract, rewarding him with $4.3 million per year over the next two years, making him the fourth-highest paid college football coach in the country at the time.
Apparently, Miles is just the tip of the iceberg at LSU. According to USA Today, the Miles investigation is the latest discovery by USA TODAY, which has revealed widespread mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations by LSU’s athletic department and broader administration. The news organization’s reporting has prompted LSU to hire another outside law firm, Husch Blackwell, to audit its handling of roughly 60 sexual misconduct cases from 2016 to 2018.
It’s exhausting and disgusting. All we can do is continue to hold these people in a position of power to a high standard, and hope that the organizations that they work for will do the same. Dan Beckler, the spokesman for University of Kansas, said the university did not know about the allegations when Miles was hired.
“Because this involves Coach Miles’ former employer and pre-dates his time at KU, and because we do not have factual knowledge about details of these allegations, it is not appropriate for us to comment further,” Beckler said.
There are multiple, detailed reports about gross misconduct from Les Miles towards female student employees at the university. LSU should be held responsible for concealing the reports and the allegations against him, and Kansas should act swiftly as well. I’m sick and tired of men in positions of power thinking they can leverage it for their own perverted desires. Stop it.
Miles’ alleged behavior also seems to mirror another creepy powerful guy in the news, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Two weeks ago, for similar displays of disgusting behavior, I gave Rudy Giuliani a very particular send off. I also said that it is the responsibility of men to promote equality and safe environments for women, and to call out this atrocious behavior when we see it. Please allow me to do the same for the latest in a string of douchebags.
Les Miles, fuck you.
