After living in the shadows for years, Brenda Tracy has very much become a public figure -- and perhaps the public face -- when it comes to sexual violence in college football.
Nearly two decades ago, Tracy, a single mother to two young kids at the time, claims she was drugged and gang-raped by four men, two of whom were football players on an Oregon State Beavers football team coached at the time by Mike Riley. The individuals were arrested but never charged in connection to the case.
In June, Tracy spoke to Riley’s players at Nebraska; a month later, Tracy, at the request of Baylor interim head coach Jim Grobe, spoke to the current members of the Bears football team.
Wednesday, Tracy delivered a petition to the NCAA at its headquarters in Indianapolis asking the governing body of collegiate athletics to ban violent/sexually-violent athletes. Tracy and her two sons presented the initiative at a meeting of the NCAA’s Board of Governors.157,000+ signatures & 800 pages of comments delivered to the @NCAA Nat’l office urging them to #banviolentathletes pic.twitter.com/GNBvvMLkC9
— Brenda Tracy (@brendatracy24) August 3, 2016
A petition, started by Tracy’s son Darius Adams, posted to change.org has thus far garnered 157,481 signatures as of this posting. In a very powerful missive addressed to NCAA president Mark Emmert and Board of Governors vice-chairman L. Jay Lemons, Adams essentially demands the NCAA do something on this front after dragging their feet for decades.
Why are we protecting this small group of men? Why are we allowing them to destroy people’s lives? All of these victims have families and they get hurt too. I’m still dealing with what happened to my mom.
We need to do something right now, and I think it starts with the NCAA creating a policy that bans violent athletes. Enough is enough. It’s been 17 years and nothing has changed. How many more years do we have to wait for something to happen? As the NCAA you have authority over many schools. YOU can change this. These schools have proven that they are not going to do the right thing. I believe it is your responsibility to step in. And please don’t do it for me or my mom. Do it because it’s the right thing to do.
“She has a compelling story and, like us, is seeking changes on campuses and nationally to stem the tide of sexual assault,” a portion of a statement from the NCAA read. “We look forward to continuing our conversation with her and other leaders regarding this important matter.”According to the Associated Press, the NCAA has taken what some would call baby steps over the last few years in addressing the issue of sexual violence amongst its student-athletes:
The NCAA first began discussing the issue in 2010, and held a summit in Indianapolis in the spring of 2011. It later announced it would sponsor the Violence Prevention Think Tank.
In August 2014, the topic came up again. This time, the NCAA issued a statement on sexual violence prevention.
One month later, the NCAA released a handbook about how to deal with sexual violence and joined the “It’s on Us” campaign.
In July 2015, the NCAA started the Sexual Assault Task Force. In February, the NCAA held another summit on the topic.