Former ESPN Host and NFL Player Marcellus Wiley Responds to Sexual Assault Allegations

Earlier this week, Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL defensive end on the Buffalo Bills and San Diego Chargers, was accused of sexual assault and rape while playing at Columbia University on Nov. 18, 1994, in a lawsuit filed by a woman who also went to Columbia at that time.

Wiley was accused of assaulting a classmate at Columbia in November 1994 in a complaint filed Tuesday, which was obtained by The Messenger. The complaint was filed in the final days of the Adult Survivors Act, which expired Friday.

On Wednesday, Wiley put out a response on his Youtube series. Wiley devoted half of his hour-and-fifteen minute show to addressing the allegations.

Wiley denied the allegations, callimg them "rumors" and "B.S. He did say that he spent the night her at dorm on the night of the incident but denied that they had sex.

"She was a virgin and it didn't happen, simple as that," Wiley said of the allegations that the two had sex.

Wiley also noted that the Columbia dorm rooms had thin walls and said he once got "107 noise complaints in one week" for playing music too loud.

"So you can imagine, if I'm getting noise complaints all day, all night for playing The Chronic album, what would happen if someone was repeatedly assaulting someone in those same dorm rooms with those same thin walls?" Wiley said. "Maybe somebody would've complained. Maybe somebody would've heard."

Wiley did confirm part of the report that he had been denied an alumni award as a result of the plaintiff, who worked for Columbia by that point, raising concerns about his previous conduct.

"I told them immediately 'I don't need the award,'" Wiley said of his response when the school told him his nomination was being challenged. "I didn't even know what the award was until I had to look it up, and listen to people, and people told me."

Wiley also addressed multiple small details in the report, including the claim that he was a "star" running back, and that the plaintiff was accused by Columbia administrators of jeopardizing Wiley's future NFL career. Wiley started his college career at running back and transitioned to defensive end his senior year, which is the position he played in the NFL.

"I wasn't that great, maybe you could say I was good, but I wasn't that great," Wiley said. "There was no one looking at me like 'Oh my God this dude is pro-bound.' No one is looking at me like 'Oh man that's the best running back ever.''"

"No one was looking out for me in football like that, not my sophomore year. You picked the wrong year if you're gonna pick a year where you're gonna say everyone was looking out."

At the time, he claimed, he was "not getting the NFL's attention" as a sophomore running back. Wiley was selected in the second round of the 1997 NFL Draft by the Bills, playing in the NFL for ten seasons.

Wiley did not address accusations that he had left the plaintiff multiple phone calls where the caller would breathe heavily before hanging up. The complaint alleges that the plaintiff told the assistant director of security at Columbia about the calls, and that the calls stopped soon after he spoke to Wiley.

Wiley also did not address the complaint's claim that he had been the recipient of multiple complaints of alleged sexual assault and/or rape, beginning in the fall of 1993, when Wiley was a freshman. Complaints against Wiley, according to the plaintiff, were filed before and after the plaintiff was assaulted.

Wiley also said that he plans to countersue for defamation once he was officially sued by the plaintiff.

"I gotta fight fire with fire," he said. "I've lost one fan, I'm sure, if not more than one."