Oh, Todd Golden. Why? (Photo via Gators Wire)
As if things couldn’t possibly get any worse for the Florida Gators athletic program, head men’s basketball coach Todd Golden is being accused of sexually harassing a multitude of different young women.
Early this morning, a source texted me the following screenshot of an official complaint made against Golden. Shortly after I posted the screenshot, the Independent Florida Alligator released a story on the subject, having spoken to two different women about the nature of the allegations. The complaint was filed on September 27 with the University of Florida’s Title IX office, and it accused Golden of a number of different unwanted, sexually aggressive behaviors.
Among the unsettling forms of behavior Todd Golden is being accused of: requesting sexual favors, making unwanted advances via social media, and sending photos and videos of his genitalia while traveling with the Gator basketball team. Worst of all, Golden is accused of a variety of forms of stalking, including taking pictures of women and their cars and then sending those pictures to them, as well as showing up to locations he knew that they’d be.
One of the (relatively) less frightening things Golden was accused of involved some strange alleged behaviors on Instagram. Golden is said to have been liking female UF students’ instagram posts, waiting until the women saw the notification that he’d liked them, and then unliked them to avoid creating suspicion.
One of the alleged victims told the Alligator the following:
“Golden stalked her in person, both in his car and on foot, and that this occurred “more than 10 times.” On one occasion, she said she posted her location on her Instagram story, and Golden messaged her shortly after saying that he was in the area “waiting for [her].”
She also said Golden sent unsolicited photos of his genitalia to her. On multiple occasions, the first woman said she received the photos while the team was traveling on the road. The nature of Golden’s alleged stalking became more assertive over time, she said.
“At first, it starts off slow, like, ‘Oh, wow. That’s odd. This guy is showing us attention,’” the first woman said. “And then it becomes, ‘Wow, he’s kind of crossing a line. No, he didn’t mean it that way.’ Then it’s, ‘Wait, he’s fully stepping over that line.’ And then it’s, ‘Wow, there’s a picture of his dick.’ It was a full grooming process with all of us.”
Another alleged victim told the Alligator that Golden once told her that she was his “good luck charm” or his “drug” before his team’s games tipped off. This woman added that this particular behavior was commonly applied from Golden to several women.
Both women told the Alligator that Special Assistant Ralphie Ferrari and UF Director of Basketball Strategy and Analytics Jonathan Safir were aware of and complicit in Golden’s misconduct, although neither man was named in the Title IX complaint.
The University of Florida is barred from commenting on active Title IX investigations under federal law. This is probably why no public statement has been made from Florida. But these alleged behaviors have been alive for over a year now, and if they’re proven to be even partially true, it makes for quite a trifecta of hires for athletic director Scott Stricklin.
Since arriving in Gainesville, Stricklin– who touts himself as a God-fearing Christian with deeply-rooted morals and values of people’s character– has hired a women’s basketball coach who made racist comments, flung a basketball at the injured leg of a girl recovering from ACL surgery, and drove one of his players to the brink of suicide with his relentless verbal abuse, a soccer coach who pressured his players about their diets so ruthlessly that several of them developed eating disorders, and now a men’s basketball coach who’s being accused of sexual harassment and stalking by various young women– and appears to have made efforts to sweep all three stories under the rug. Forget the fact that Golden was a risky hire at the time; that’s an impressive hat trick of behavior. And that’s all on top of the fact that he not only hired the worst football coach in Florida Gator history since the 1940’s, but earlier this week announced that coach would be staying on at Florida despite a 10-18 record against Power Five teams and a 1-10 record against rivals.
That’s quite a resume.
To be completely fair, though, we only have one side of this story. Todd Golden, as every American is, deserves the right to due process. It’s crucial to remember that allegations are not the same as proven fact, and that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
But if even half these allegations are proven true by a complete and thorough investigation, and these allegations go from accusations to proven fact, there is no way Golden can plausibly survive this. And while this just adds another layer of frustration for Gator fans, it might, just might, squash the cockroach occupying the AD’s office in Gainesville who’s somehow managed to evade the boot of justice for nearly a decade.
