Tuesday, August 2, 2016

TWO ASSISTANT AGGIE FOOTBALL COACHES SUSPENDED WITHOUT PAY AFTER DEGRADING COMMENTS MADE ABOUT WOMEN

By Kelly Brown | AggieSports.com | July 29, 2016

Two assistant Texas A&M football coaches were suspended without pay Friday after officials learned a recent presentation they gave at a clinic for women fans included inappropriate content that was degrading toward females.

The presentation - which included slides sprinkled with sexual suggestions and crude comments - was shown by offensive line coach Jim Turner and special teams coordinator Jeff Banks on campus Wednesday during Chalk Talk for Women, a charity fundraising event in which roughly 700 women took part.

The assistants released a statement Friday apologizing for their remarks, saying it was a failed attempt at humor.

The program included head coach Kevin Sumlin and his staff teaching fans about football, running drills with the participants, touring Kyle Field and giving a preview of the upcoming season. The $80 event included a dinner.

Sumlin announced the two-week suspensions late Friday afternoon in a statement.

"There is absolutely no place in our program or in our University community for inappropriate conduct or degrading comments towards women, or anyone, regardless of intent."

Sumlin - who was at the popular event that benefits Twin City Mission, but didn't see the presentation - wasn't aware of the contents of the presentations until Friday morning after a social media post from a fan went viral. He said in a statement that he had been meeting participants, taking photographs and signing autographs during the event.

Once he learned about the incident, Sumlin said he consulted Athletics Director Scott Woodward and made the decision to suspend his assistants. Chalk Talk took a two-year break while Kyle Field underwent $485 million in renovations and just returned this week.

Turner, who just returned to A&M, and Banks, who started with the university in 2013, both must serve 20 hours of community service. It wasn't immediately clear what that might be.

"On behalf of Aggie Football, I want to apologize for the comments at Chalk Talk and also for my failure to review their individual presentations," Sumlin said, thanking those who attended the event and supported the homeless mission.

One of the slides featured these tips:

"PASS - BLOCKING RULES
THE DOs
Spread them again
Get erect
Stay erect
Bang him hard"

Another slide:

"RUN - BLOCKING RULES
THE DON'Ts
No penetration
Never bend over
Don't end up on your back"

And a third slide:

“RUN – BLOCKING RULES
THE Dos
Spread your legs
Enter front / Not behind
Push hard
Finiah on top”

They also introduced their parody that revised the Aggie War Hymn lyrics in a nonsensical fashion to include having women put away their cleaning supplies to make touchdowns.

Turner and Banks released the following statement along with Sumlin's remarks: "We want to sincerely apologize to the passionate Aggie fans and to women everywhere for our failed attempt at humor during this week's Aggie Football Chalk Talk and fundraiser. We clearly understand now that our comments and slides were not appropriate or consistent with the values of our football program or our Department. We must do better, and we will."

EDITOR’S NOTE: Obviously someone couldn’t take a joke. I think this was funny and not intended to degrade womwn.

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