Patrick Witt, poster boy for First World Problems, might not be what he appears to be. The Yale quarterback has been scouted by the NFL, and was even a candidate for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Witt is actually most well-known because of the decision he had to make between playing in “The Game” against Harvard (which he ended up losing, horribly) and his Rhodes interview.
But now a shocking report by The New York Times on Thursday evening has revealed that not everything was so cut and dry in that decision.
According to The New York Times, in November, Witt released a statement indicating that he had withdrawn his Rhodes application in order to participate in the Yale-Harvard game, but the Times reports that Witt’s candidacy had actually been suspended due to a report— coming through unofficial channels— that the quarterback had been accused of sexual assault by a female student in September 2011.
According to an article by Alex Klein on JimRomensko.com, the Yale Daily News was aware of the allegation of sexual assault against Witt and chose not to report the story despite all the attention being heaped on the quarterback. Vivian Yee, a former editor for the Yale Daily News, contributed to the NYT report.
According to Klein, the News continued to avoid the story even after being tipped off that the Times would be publishing its own piece about the sexual assault and the timeline of Witt’s Rhodes candidacy.
In response to the report in The New York Times, Witt released a statement on Friday, insisting that there is no connection between the conclusion of his candidacy for a Rhodes scholarship and any on-campus accusation of sexual assault.
The New York Times story incorrectly connects Patrick’s decision to forego the Rhodes Scholarship with an informal complaint process that had concluded on campus weeks prior to his withdrawal — a process that yielded no disciplinary measures, formal reports, or referrals to higher authorities.
To be clear, Patrick’s Rhodes candidacy was never “suspended”, as the article suggests, and his official record at Yale contains no disciplinary issues.
The statement also claims that Witt’s candidacy was never suspended and that he did choose his participation in the Yale-Harvard game over attending the Rhodes interview, as he had originally stated. Addressing the accusation of sexual assault, the statement reveals that, “Patrick is aware that the informal complaint was filed by a person he had known for many months prior and with whom he had engaged in an on-again, off-again relationship beginning in the Spring of 2011 and ending about two months before the informal complaint was filed.”
Whether or not the NYT report is true, it does cast doubt over Witt. Witt’s former coach Tom Williams resigned after it was discovered he’d lied about being a candidate for a Rhodes Scholarship back in 1992. The NYT was, again, the one to break the story that the coach had lied about his candidacy, which could have influenced Witt to choose football over academia.
