This being the NFL of 2017, Vance Joseph first had to address his past before he could talk about his future as the new coach of the Denver Broncos.
That past includes sexual assault allegations in which no charges were filed while he was a college coach. That would be an important issue anywhere, but it is particularly so in a league that continues to grapple with domestic violence and sexual assault. Joseph, 44, was introduced as the Broncos’ new coach last week.
“That was resolved a long time ago,” Joseph told The Denver Post’s Nicki Jhabvala on Wednesday, adding that the allegations “are false.”
“For myself, for my family, for the Denver Broncos, I’m disappointed and embarrassed. I was a young guy, and it showed to my immaturity and irresponsibility in my life when I was younger. But I’ve grown so much and that’s why I’m disappointed, because I’ve grown so much as a person, as a coach, as a father, as a husband.
“Everyone who knows me knows that I try to live my life the right way, and I regret that my name is even associated with this.”
The allegations became a topic of discussion again over the weekend because of a Boulder Daily Camera report. When he was defensive backs coach at Colorado from 2003 to 2004, Joseph was accused of sexually assaulting two female trainers at the school, allegations that were investigated when a task force investigated a recruiting scandal at the university in the early 2000s. Joseph was neither charged nor interviewed as part of the investigation, but, over the weekend, details from a 2004 Boulder Police Department report were published by the Daily Camera.
One of the alleged victims told Boulder police at the time, that she and her friend were “not the only women that VJ (Joseph) was getting in trouble for,” according to the police report, which summarized a detective’s 2004 interview with the woman. One of the trainers declined to press charges and the other refused to talk to police, so the case was closed.
In the alleged incident from 2003, the trainer told police that they had socialized with Joseph, then went to a house where they drank and smoked marijuana. The woman said she later went to bed and awakened to find Joseph in the bedroom. He took off his clothes and, she states in the police report, began “touching her all over with his hands and rubbed his body against her.” When she pretended to be unconscious, Joseph eventually left the room. Her friend told her the next day that Joseph had done the same thing, the police report states, and she told him to “get the hell out.”
The woman who chose not to file charges made her decision because, she said in the report, she was “fine and could handle it.”
Joseph played football at Colorado, mostly as a quarterback, from 1990 to 1995 and returned as an assistant in 1999. In 2004, he went on administrative leave for what the university said was a “personal matter.” He left for Bowling Green that year, then took a series of NFL assistant jobs starting in 2005. He was the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator during the 2016 season and succeeds Gary Kubiak, who stepped down for health reasons.
In a statement to the Daily Camera, a Broncos spokesman said that John Elway, the team’s general manager, and Joe Ellis, the team president, had been aware of the allegations and noted that Joseph was not charged. Like players, coaches and other employees must conform to the personal conduct policy that was revised in 2014.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Cindy Boren / Featured Image via Denver Broncos
