UCLA basketball coach Steve Alford released an apology this morning addressing concerns about his actions from when he was the coach of Iowa.
Since Alford’s hiring, questions have arisen about his handling of a case in which one of his students was accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student. He proclaimed the innocence of his player, Pierre Pierce, before the case had made its way through the legal system.
In his introductory press conference last week, Alford defended his actions when asked about the situation and said that he had done what Iowa asked him to do, a claim that the school has contested.
But on Thursday morning, UCLA Athletics released statements from both Alford and Athletic Director Dan Guerrero.
“I wanted to believe he was innocent, and in response to a media question, I publicly proclaimed his innocence before the legal system had run its course. This was inappropriate, insensitive and hurtful, especially to the young female victim involved, and I apologize for that,” Alford said in the statement.
“I have learned and grown from that experience and now understand that such proclamations can contribute to an atmosphere in which similar crimes go unreported and victims are not taken seriously.”
Guerrero’s statement said that the hiring was based on Alford’s successful career and noted that while the coach made a mistake 11 years ago, he had grown because of it.
On Thursday morning, before the statement was released, the Daily Bruin editorial board published a piece calling for an apology from Alford.
Compiled by Emma Coghlan, Bruin Sports senior staff.
OH HE APOLOGIZED SO IT’S ALL BETTER NOW.
But really: he didn’t even apologize for what he really did, which was do his best to intimidate the victim out of pressing charges, including aggressively berating her in public and in private. One time, he even tricked her into coming to what she thought would be a large gathering, but turned out to be just coach Alford and a priest, so that they could try to say that “God” wanted her to not press any charges or give their team bad press. Additionally,
Finally, look at the timelines on this: UCLA has a spate of really intense and terrible rapes over the past few weeks (including ones by athletes); Alford is hired, and at his opening press conference one week ago this article (clearly biased in his favor) openly admits he “defended his actions.” UCLA’s statement is that he’s somehow “grown” from this (so having once done something terrible is a positive attribute now?), even though he was defending it a week ago, and only changed his stance very lightly now due to bad press (and now it’s not even a real apology, as he’s ignoring all the main issues). How is this ok???
Oh, and by the way, the player Alford defended got convicted of this rape, and then–only a few years later–another violent and terrible rape. Again.
I’ve tried to post the link to this several times on other articles pertaining to him, but it has not shown up; regardless, you can google it on your own if interested. Something you should note is that the head county prosecutor who handled this case in Iowa released a public statement condemning Coach Alford for attacking the victim so mercilessly and aggressively.
He should be chucked out of here and chucked in jail. And everyone complicit in his hiring and defense should be fired. Students are endangered by this wanton promotion of rape culture. Disgusting. (The Daily Bruin’s coverage of this is similarly awful in that it misses all this that makes him look bad, so yes, I would support the expulsion of the writer of this from our community).
So, how long have you been a BN moderator?