That is one giant troubling headline today for Notre Dame. According to a report published by the New York Daily News on Monday, Notre Dame fired a female academic coach after being accused of attempting to force players from Notre Dame’s football and men’s basketball team to enter into a sexual relationship with her daughter. The report suggests the fired coach targeted African-American players for the relationship. The name of the coach has not been identified.
The accusation stems from an unnamed African-American student, who is on an academic scholarship and accused of the coach pressuring him to have sex with the coach’s white daughter. The academic coach did so by allegedly attempting to set up meetings in hotel rooms between the student and the daughter. As if this was not already horrendous enough, the now former academic coach is also accused of asking the student follow-up questions about the nature of the relationship between student and her daughter.
“She was exploiting African-American males,” said lawyer Peter J. Agostino, who is representing the unnamed student, said in the story published by the New York Daily News. “He was invited to the family’s private home to facilitate the relationship.”
“She was encouraging it,” said Michael Misch (via New York Daily News), another lawyer representing a separate accuser. “The mom sought him out and promoted the relationship by providing hotel rooms and condoms.”
Lawyers for the students filing the accusations claim Notre Dame has fostered a sexually abusive and hostile educational environment. These are allegations the University of Notre Dame has not taken lightly, although a formal statement from university spokesman Paul Browne dismissed the lawsuit as “unfounded” and suggested it was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
“The allegations against the University of Notre Dame in the complaint are unfounded,” Browne said in a statement to the South Bend Tribune. “As are gratuitous and unfounded references to ‘student athletes’ — an allegation that is nothing more than a cynical attempt to attract publicity.”
This being a college football-oriented site, it is important purely from a college football standpoint to mention there is no connection to or allegation of Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly or any member fo the football staff having any knowledge of this situation at this time.