By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
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Only days after LSU's Athletic Director Scott Woodward and Head Coach Brian Kelly took to the stages and podiums of New York, crowning their Heisman winning quarterback, the athletic department pair found themselves in a downtown Baton Rouge court room, fighting a $50 million dollar lawsuit.
Subpoenaed to testify by the attorneys of former LSU associate recruiting athletic director Sharon Lewis, facing a lawsuit alleging civil, gender and sexual harassment, which involves LSU's powerhouse RBs Coach and recruiting coordinator Frank Wilson, widely thought of as one of, if not the best recruiter in college football.
Did LSU protect their prized asset, Coach Wilson, against the repercussions of Lewis' lawsuit?
First off, this lawsuit was already dismissed once before, by Judge Tim Kelley who blasted and sanctioned Sharon Lewis' attorneys for trying to bring up RICO charges against LSU, Lewis and her attorneys proclaiming LSU's athletic department formed a criminal conspiracy to hide and conceal Title IX allegations.
Second, this case has been going on for almost 3 whole years now, and what's interesting?
Coach Wilson's name, as well as the sexual nature of Lewis' allegations against Coach Frank, were completely absent from Lewis' original lawsuit. Wilson's name was only added nearly a year later when Wilson was re-hired by LSU as one of Kelly's first splash hires.
The Sharon Lewis case has become a specter in the shadows for LSU, haunting the university's fabled athletic department at every step.
Every time a moment of public glory and incredible progress occurs for the school's football program, social media is barraged with volleys of "new" articles filled with old information, spun to sound as if hell is raining down on LSU itself, inserting scandalous quotes from mostly unidentified accusers, all going right at the heart of LSU's athletic department with scorched earth intent.
From the beginning, the sad fact of the matter is former Head Coach Les Miles is the actual face of the entire toxicity that caused the covering up of dozens of Title IX allegations.....and yet throughout the case's nearly 4 years on the docket, Miles has never spoken once, including in his own defense on a witness stand, with Lewis' attorneys claiming they're unable to locate Miles at any of the three states he's known to own homes: Louisiana, Florida and Kansas.
Instead, we've seen men such as Brian Kelly or Scott Woodward, whose tenures began after the toxic Miles and Orgeron eras were exposed, now forced to answer for the creation and perpetuation of Les Miles' toxic, sexual assault and violence tolerating culture or Coach Ed Orgeron's code of silence when it came to the actions of players such as Derrius Guice (a player who committed various Title IX violations under both coaches, including multiple rape and domestic violence).
Scheduled to take the stand at any point this next week, questions will be asked of Head Coach Brian Kelly as to "why" he hired Coach Frank Wilson, given LSU were right in the middle of a Title IX scandal frenzy, or if Kelly was even aware of the Lewis allegations.
Woodward was on the stand beginning Wednesday and ending on Friday, as was a former LSU student staffer named Nikole Jessie, who tearfully alleged she was forcibly and forcefully kissed on the lips by Frank Wilson in front of another LSU athletic department employee.
No matter what you believe, this is a hot mess for LSU, even if they win the case:
Not only was this case destroyed and shot down once before, the courts reopened the Lewis file and fed it through the system once again....and right when LSU athletic department personnel as well as Tiger players, coaches or fans thought the scandals were over once and for all, the Lewis case is finally being heard.
Now argued in front of a different judge, with Frank Wilson and Scott Woodward forced to testify under oath for the first time, while Brian Kelly, the man hired by Woodward to eradicate the toxic culture that pervaded under Miles and Orgeron, is also scheduled to speak in a court room, under oath, on his hiring of Wilson, his knowledge of prior title IX allegations committed by coaches he fired during the first days of his tenure, among a variety of other questions...valid or not.
The last defendant LSU would want to take their stand?
Frank Wilson, where not only is the longtime Louisiana recruiting titan publicly discussing sexual relations with Sharon Lewis he deemed "consensual" while Wilson was married, worse still, given his position of power and actual coaching expertise, Frank likely has intimate knowledge of a number of Title IX allegations....dating all the way back to the Miles era. It's likely Wilson will be the defendant most racked over the coals....
...Kelly, Woodward and especially Wilson, will all be put through the ringer....with a lot at stake:
Losing the final battle in what has been a very bloody public war for the soul of LSU Athletics, while simultaneously losing $50 million in damages at a time when the department is already limited financially in comparison to Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama or Georgia, then they're also potentially losing out on Frank Wilson as their recruiting dynamo, specifically if Woodward deems his actions from the court room testimonies to be too much to ignore.
Plus, LSU will be putting their $100 million dollar Head Coach through the absolute ringer....immediately after a turbulent season, smack dab at the start of an offseason amid plenty of questions and staff decisions to be made going forward, during a time when high school recruits are signing on the dotted line....all of these kids holding close relationships with Frank Wilson....all of these factors make the outcome of this 2 week trial all the more important for LSU, as a football program, a university, and the athletic department itself.
Although, in order for an institution to atone for the wrongs of its past, time and opportunity for growth must be allowed. Lewis' case is layered with strategically timed, scorched earth bitterness towards figures who have nothing to do with LSU at this juncture;
Her case reeks of opportunism as much as LSU admittedly experienced true Title IX failings or even cover-ups during the Miles & Orgeron eras......however, day after day, more evidence and witnesses continue to paint an ugly picture of LSU football's past, resulting in the odds stacking against the university's beleaguered Phelps-Dunbar attorneys.
The only way for LSU to definitively win this case?
Argue and prove Lewis wasn't a victim, but actually a willing accessory of the athletic department's Miles and Orgeron-era "Title IX Omerta", a hypotheses I find just as believable as Lewis' over-the-top assertion that Miles once said he was going to "punch her in her motherfucking face".
Is Sharon Lewis a victim of her own athletic department's alleged sexual assault cover-ups? Or did she see her marginalization within LSU's athletic department coincide with a vast Title IX case already in progress against the university, saw the landscape of the Me Too movement's mob mentality / "believe any accusation" ethos & the mainstream media's turn against LSU, and pounce on an opportunity?
It's all a shady, dramatic, foaming at the mouth mess...your answer to the above questions will likely decide where you fall on the issue of this case, no matter what evidence we are shown.
You'll be affixed for your side....on one hand there is a woke mob within mainstream or hipster online media backing Lewis, while the nation's most intensive and die hard fan base will hear or see nothing against their university.
Due to how volatile & polarizing the case has become over these past 3 years, or how wild and wide-ranging the allegations, the expansive number of witnesses, defendants or LSU athletic department personnel thrown into the line of fire, I wouldn't be surprised by anything at this point, or how low either side may go to reach victory.
OUR COMPANION LIVE SHOW DISCUSSING THE LAWSUIT & HOW IT COULD AFFECT THE 2024 SEASON & BEYOND
By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
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