Yale Quarterback Faces Sexual Assault Allegations

UPDATED Jan. 28 at 4:05 p.m.

Yale quarterback Patrick Witt, who attracted national attention when he faced a decision between playing in the Nov. 19 Harvard-Yale football game and attending an interview for a Rhodes Scholarship, reportedly did not have a choice at all.

According to the New York Times, Witt’s candidacy for the prestigious scholarship was suspended prior to the interview date due to allegations of sexual assault against the student. The Rhodes Trust received word “through unofficial channels” that an anonymous female at Yale had accused the quarterback of sexual assault without filing a formal complaint, the Times reported.

According to the Times, the foundation asked Yale President Richard C. Levin and other officials whether Witt still had their endorsement. Before Yale made a formal decision, Witt announced his intention to play in The Game and withdraw his application for the scholarship, the Times reported.

Witt could not be reached for comment. His agent, Mark F. Magazu, II, said that Witt’s Rhodes application was never put on hold. “We can definitively show that the candidacy was valid and bona fide until the very end when he withdrew,” Magazu said.

In a statement released Friday on behalf of Witt, Magazu confirmed a timeline of events similar to that reported by the Times but said that the conflict with the football game, not the assault complaint, caused Witt to withdraw his application for the Rhodes.

In the release, he said, “As the decision process unfolded, Patrick became aware that an anonymous source had contacted the Rhodes Trust with false information purporting to reference an informal—and confidential—complaint within the University. In light of this, and given the short period of time between this occurrence and the potential final interview, the Rhodes Trust asked for an additional letter of reference for Patrick from Yale. By that time, however, Patrick had already informed the Athletic Department officials that he intended to withdraw his candidacy due to the inability to reschedule his final interview.”

Many questions remain about what happened in the week before the Bulldogs took the field—with Witt as a starter—and were dominated by Harvard, 45-7. It is unclear how much Witt, Yale officials, or the Rhodes Trust knew about the assault allegations at any point.

According to the Times, Witt has already finished his coursework. Though he is working on his senior essay, he is not enrolled at Yale and is instead preparing in California for the upcoming NFL draft.

Witt is still listed on the Yale College Online Facebook, according to the Yale Daily News.

A three-year starter for the Bulldogs, Witt transferred to Yale from the University of Nebraska after the 2008 season—in part because he wanted to escape the attention that came with being a football player on a Big 12 campus, The Boston Globe wrote at the time.

But Witt found himself in the spotlight again when he revealed that his final interview for the Rhodes Scholarship coincided with the 2011 iteration of The Game. After Witt announced his intention to compete against Harvard rather than for the scholarship, national media outlets championed him as the consummate team player.

Witt, who is attempting to find a spot in the NFL, now faces a different kind of scrutiny.

Before the allegations, character was often cited by commentators as one of Witt’s strengths, according to Eric Galko, director of scouting for a website which discusses prospective NFL draft picks. Galko said that Witt was ranked the 23rd best quarterback in this year’s class. Other websites have him ranked as highly as 17th.

The recent news, Galko said to The Crimson, could be a “huge detriment” to his draft potential.

“NFL teams have whole security teams to look into stuff like this,” Galko said.

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacobfeldman@college.harvard.edu.