Texas Tech Students Shocked by Recent Home Town Scandal

Information about two scandals from 2015 involving a retiring Dallas Cowboys executive has just recently surfaced.

The scandals involved allegations that Rich Dalrymple, the retiring senior VP of public relations and communications, filmed Cowboys cheerleaders in their locker room and took upskirt photos of Jerry Jones’ daughter. This led to four members of the cheerleading squad being paid a confidential settlement of $2.4 million by the team, and now has the many people who knew Dalrymple, and his family, in shock over the allegations that have surfaced.

Dalrymple has twin sons that attended Coppell High School in Coppell, Texas. While the twins went on to acting school in New York, many students who grew up with the boys went to Texas Tech University. The news of these allegations came as a shock to many students who knew the Dalrymple family. I reached out to a Coppell high school graduate to get their reaction to the scandal.

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The Texas Tech student that I spoke to went to school with the Dalrymple twins since elementary school, so they were very surprised when they heard about the allegations against Rich Dalrymple. Despite going to school with the twins for so long, they only met their mother, who was always very kind. Despite never meeting the twin’s father, students always heard about their dad being a big-shot with the Dallas Cowboys.

The Tech student said, "I always saw them as a normal, everyday, suburban family." They were shocked when they first heard the news of Dalrymple being accused of such inappropriate acts, saying, "This isn’t something I would ever expect from them." When you've known someone for so long, and see them in a positive light, it can be hard to hear news like that.

Now that these allegations have surfaced after a signed copy of the settlement was obtained by ESPN, more people have spoken out about the settlement. Out of the four cheerleaders, three spouses and Cowboys officials that signed the agreement to never publicly speak about their allegations, none of them have spoken up. However, a former cheerleader who wasn’t involved in the incident spoke with ESPN about the locker room allegations. She said, “It was a very … shut the book, don’t talk about it, this person is going to stay in his position … They just made it go away.”

In regards to the upskirt photo allegations, Dallas Cowboys fan Randy Horton shared his side of the story.

"The first time he reached out from a sitting position behind her, and she is standing with her back to him and did it once … He looked at the screen, touched the screen, and then did it again," Horton claimed. "The second time, he’s sitting in a chair at the corner of the table on the left and he held his phone beneath the corner of the table with the camera side facing up where she was standing. And did it again."

Apparently, Dalrymple has denied both the locker room and upskirt photo allegations, and both incidents were thoroughly investigated. He made a statement, saying, "I understand the very serious nature of these claims and do not take them lightly. The accusations are, however, false. One was accidental and the other simply did not happen. Everything that was alleged was thoroughly investigated years ago, and I cooperated fully."

Jim Wilkinson, a communication consultant for the Cowboys, stated, "the investigation was handled consistent with best legal and HR practices and the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing."