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Former NFL owner thinks Art Briles would be 'the best man' to coach at FCS school

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
Art Briles has been out of coaching since he was fired at Baylor in 2016. (Reuters)
Art Briles has been out of coaching since he was fired at Baylor in 2016. (Reuters)

Red McCombs wants former Baylor coach Art Briles to coach at FCS school Incarnate Word. The school, however, reportedly has no interest in McCombs idea.

The former NFL and NBA owner told the San Antonio Express-News that he’s pushed the San Antonio school’s board of trustees to hire Briles as it looks for a new coach. And get a load of what he said he told the board. From the Express-News:

“You not only will be getting the best football coach available but also the best man,” McCombs said he told UIW trustees.

But a UIW source with knowledge of the situation said the school is not considering Briles as a candidate.

If you’re laughing after reading the 90-year-old billionaire’s quote — or frozen in horror — we don’t blame you. It’s one thing to say Briles is the best coach available to lead the team. By simple on-field success and offensive innovation, he probably is. FCS teams don’t often get the chance to have coaches that ran explosive Power Five offenses to lead their programs.

But the best man? This is a coach who was fired from Baylor in May of 2016 after an independent investigation into the mishandling of sexual assault accusations at the school said there were “significant concerns about the tone and culture within Baylor’s football program as it relates to accountability for all forms of student-athlete misconduct.”

This is a coach who reportedly asked why a woman was hanging with “bad dudes” from his football team after she came forward with a gang rape accusation.

This is a coach who didn’t make it a day on the staff of a Canadian Football League team after fan backlash to his hiring. After that hire, the CFL team said it had made a “large and serious mistake.”

If Briles is the best man for the Incarnate Word job, the list of potential candidates must be pretty damn shallow.

McCombs is a booster at Incarnate Word — a center at the school bears his name. He’s owned the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs in the NBA and owned the Minnesota Vikings from 1998-2005.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!