8:30 pm Update:
The CFL office has stepped in and canceled the Briles hiring. A statement from the league:
“Art Briles will no longer be joining the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a coach. We came to this decision this evening following a lengthy discussion between the league and the Hamilton organization. We wish Mr. Briles all the best in his future endeavours.”
6PM Update:
Well, in a vague statement, the Commissioner of the CFL is saying they might need to pump the brakes on this hire. We'll keep you posted.
Original article (11AM ET):
Art Briles is back.
The CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats announced Monday the former Baylor and Houston head coach has been hired as its assistant head coach for offense.
The Tiger-Cats, off to an 0-8 start this season, named former Hawaii and SMU head coach June Jones as their head coach last week.
Briles spent the 2016 season out of football after being fired from Baylor for his role in the wide-ranging sexual assault saga that engulfed the football program and the entire university. (Briles has denied any personal knowledge of such cases and apologized to a handful of victims.) He was linked unofficially to Florida Atlantic, where his son Kendal is the Owls' offensive coordinator, but the Hamilton hiring is his first official appointment inside the game of football post-Baylor.
Meanwhile, the first of the Ti-Cats' two women's clinics is today.
Briles has spent his downtime sorting through the myriad of lawsuits by Baylor victims that named him alongside his former employer. As that process has begun to untangle itself, Briles's attorney predicted he would be back in football -- American-style -- for the 2018 season.
“There’s no question this is one step toward him getting back into coaching,” Mark Lanier said after Briles was unnamed as a defendant in a suit by Tevin Elliott rape victim Jasmin Hernandez. “He did not want to get back into coaching until he finished through the legal system."
Hamilton's season concludes Nov. 3, theoretically allowing Briles to stick his toe back in the theoretical water before college and NFL jobs come open this winter.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.