Tuskegee basketball coach ‘violated’ after being handcuffed by police at end of game | College basketball

Tuskegee men’s basketball coach Benjy Taylor is considering legal action after he was handcuffed and led off the court late in his team’s loss to Morehouse College on Saturday.

Tuskegee athletic director Reginald Ruffin said Taylor tried to make sure protocols were followed when opposing Morehouse football players joined the basketball players in the postgame handshake line.

“You don’t do that…that’s a security breach,” Ruffin told HBCU Gameday. “We have security measures in place to protect our officials, student-athlete coaches and spectators.”

Videos of the incident quickly spread online. Taylor is clearly animated in the footage, but did not appear physically aggressive before being handcuffed by a police officer and led out of court.

Taylor’s attorney, Gregory Reynald Williams, said the coach was “concerned about a group of players on the Morehouse football team who were behaving aggressively toward Tuskegee players and their parents.”

Taylor was then released and joined his players as they left the arena. He told Field of 68 that the incident was humiliating.

“I am at a loss for words and I am devastated by the way I was raped and treated today,” he said. “For my players, my family and the people of Tuskegee to see this breaks my heart. I was just trying to get the football team out of the handshake line while they were following right behind me and the team was yelling obscenities. It was a very dangerous situation.”

Williams said Taylor and his legal team are considering filing a civil suit over the incident. “Coach Taylor is a good man who did the right thing to protect his team and defuse a dangerous situation and this officer put him in jail for his trouble,” Williams said.

Taylor has coached at Tuskegee since 2019. The 58-year-old has also coached Hawaii and Chicago State.