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Kirby Smart emphatically refutes report of Georgia mishandling sexual assault allegations
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Kirby Smart and Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks held a news conference on Tuesday where they took aim at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution over recent reporting that school officials responded lightly to allegations of sexual misconduct by members of the football team.
The AJC reported in June that 11 players during Kirby Smart’s tenure have remained with the program despite women reporting violent encounters to the police, the university, or both. Smart and Brooks said the reporting was “misleading and irresponsible” at the news conference on Tuesday.
“We take these allegations extremely serious — I take these allegations extremely serious,” Smart said, per The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz. “We do not tolerate sexual misconduct in our organization. I’m a football coach, I’m responsible for this program, and it starts with me. I see this through the lens of, I have a wife and a daughter. When I think about these situations, I think about them. It’s personal to me. But I will not tolerate false accusations that this program or this university condone sexual misconduct. We have no tolerance for sexual assault or abuse. Never have and never will.”
The University of Georgia Athletic Association also sent a 9-page letter to the AJC demanding a retraction of the story, saying it was “replete with errors, unsubstantiated allegations, innuendo, and possibly even fabrications.”
Brooks told reporters that “inaccurate and misleading reporting” prompted the news conference as both he and Smart wanted to set the record straight, per Schultz. Smart added that he respected the role of the media in reporting on things that happen in and around his program, but he asked for facts to carry the day.
“I might not always like the news that gets reported. I might not always like that news. It’s not always positive and good things, but I know that it needs to be shared and it needs to be shared accurately,” Smart said, per Dawgs247’s Jordan Hill. “All I ask is avoiding twisting the facts and sensationalizing serious issues. It’s never OK. Work to get the facts correct and accurate is what we ask.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
