Michigan State University (MSU) has suspended another one of its coaches due to allegations of sexual harassment. The college recently announced football head coach Mel Tucker has been the subject of an ongoing investigation since December.
USA Today reports this investigation stems from a complaint filed by Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor and advocate for sexual assault victims. She had originally teamed up with Tucker and MSU to promote awareness of the issue as it relates to athletics. The coach and advocate formed a “professional relationship,” according to USA Today, but Tracy claims this changed with a phone call in April 2022.
Tracy alleges Tucker made sexual comments towards her while pleasuring himself during the phone call in question.
“The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me,” says Tracy in an interview with USA Today. “It’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it.”
These allegations of sexual misconduct arrived after the college had only just come out of an earlier scandal. Former MSU gymnastic physician Larry Nasser faces at least a century of prison sentences after both state and federal juries found him guilty of a long list of criminal sexual charges back in 2018.
However, Tucker claims the April 2022 phone call was “entirely mutual” with Tracy. According to a statement obtained by CNN, the coach alleges he and Tracy had “dozens of phone calls” in which they discussed “all sorts of intimate, private matters.”
“We developed a mutual friendship that grew into an intimate, adult relationship; at this point, my wife and I had been estranged for a long time,” says Tucker in his statement.
He goes on to allege Tracy never mentioned she was offended by the call until months later.
Does this situation point towards a larger pattern of sexual misconduct among college sports officials or is the upcoming hearing just “a sham” and “not designed to arrive at the truth” as Tucker claims? While MSU has taken action to suspend Tucker during its ongoing investigation, it’s important to note he has yet to face these accusations in a formal hearing.
Regardless of the outcome of the misconduct investigation, I think there’s an important lesson to be learned here. Individuals in any position of power need to be hyper-aware of what sort of intimate situations confront them. Cautious avoidance of such situations goes a long way toward avoiding scandal and re-establishing some respect for positions of authority. This is true for both the world of sports and beyond.
