Nebraska head coach Mike Riley is no stranger to controversy when it comes to his football players getting into big trouble. Nearly two decades ago, two of his players at Oregon State were involved in a four-person gang rape of a woman.
On Wednesday, he finally came face-to-face with that woman, Brenda Tracy, and she seemed to be pretty forgiving of him. She even was willing to speak to the Cornhuskers to help raise awareness of what she had to go through and make sure it doesn’t happen going into the future.
After she spoke with the team, Riley, who was criticized for only suspending his two players for one game, released a statement on the situation. He thanked Tracy for being so generous to speak to his team, which came after she declined an invitation to speak at Oregon State when Riley was still there in 2014.
“Sexual assault and harassment are serious issues on campuses across America. We try to recruit young men of character with core values, and once they are here, we educate them on making good decisions and treating all people with the utmost of respect,” Riley said.
“This has been an important day for me and for our football program and we must keep the focus on the victims, and on preventing inexcusable acts in the future.”
Tracy took to Twitter and posted a photo of her and Mike Riley, calling him the face of accountability.
This is what accountability looks like. #Huskers #Riley pic.twitter.com/q9ERWlDiWR
— Brenda Tracy (@brendatracy24) June 23, 2016
It is certainly great that these two were able to put this terrible incident behind them. Let’s hope this never happens again, especially under Riley’s watch.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to Twitter/@Coach_Riley
