Suspended Michigan State head football coach Mel Tucker broke his silence Monday in a lengthy statement in which he denied sexual harassment claims and labeled them “completely false.”
In the statement released through his attorney Jennifer Z. Belveal, Tucker claimed that his accusor, Brenda Tracy, had developed an “intimate, adult relationship” and that Tracy had “encouraged our personal relationship.”
The Michigan State coach also called the hearing he’s scheduled to have next month “ridiculously flawed and not designed to arrive at the truth.”
Tucker was suspended without pay Sunday hours after USA Today published a report in which Tracy went public with her allegations that the football coach masturbated without her consent during a phone call, sent her gifts and asked if she would date him if he was not married.
Tracy is a sexual assault prevention advocate and works to educate athletes about sexual violence.
She was invited to Michigan State to speak with the football team on three occasions from 2021-2022 and Tracy told USA Today that they had developed a professional relationship.
Tracy made a formal complaint to the university in December and Tucker admitted to masturbating on the phone with Tracy, but described it as consensual phone sex.
He reiterated that Monday in his statement.
“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,” Tucker said.
“Ms. Tracy and I engaged in dozens of calls throughout fall 2021 and winter 2022, many of which she initiated and which occurred late at night. We both talked about all sorts of intimate, private matters. She told me that I could trust her, and I proceeded to do just that.”
Tucker also said that Tracy only had one paid engagement speaking at Michigan State.
She was also made an honorary captain during the team’s 2022 spring game.
“While I am saddened by Ms. Tracy’s disclosure of the sensitive nature of this call, let me be perfectly clear—it was an entirely mutual, private event between two adults living at opposite ends of the country,” Tucker said. “She initiated the discussion that night, sent me a provocative picture of the two of us together, suggested what she may look like without clothes, and never once during the 36 minutes did she object in any manner, much less hang up the phone.”
He later added that Tracy never cut off ties to the program and claimed she only raised objections when he postponed her next paid presentation and when he “complained to her that she and her assistant were spreading rumors about my marriage.”
The university hired an independent investigator after Tracy made the formal complaint to the school’s Office for Civil Rights.
The investigator filed a report in late July, athletic director Alan Haller said during a press conference held Sunday evening.
It was recommended that the university hold a hearing to decide whether Tucker had violated the university’s sexual misconduct policy.
Tucker claimed that the investigation had been far from “fair or unbiased.”
The football coach also claimed that the hearing was designed for student infractions and didn’t offer him a fair place to present his side of the story.
He added that he felt that Michigan State was trying to overcompensate following the Larry Nassar scandal, in which the sports physician sexually abused a number of athletes while working at the university and with USA Gymnastics.
“I can only conclude that there is an ulterior motive designed to terminate my contract based on some other factor such as a desire to avoid any Nasser taint, or my race or gender. The sham ‘hearing’ scheduled for October 5-6 is ridiculously flawed and not designed to arrive at the truth,” Tucker said.
Michigan State hired Tucker in 2020 and has gone 20-14 since he took over the football program.
He signed a 10-year, $95 million contract extension in 2021.
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