Earlier this year, the last head coach you’d expect to be involved in a brawl in college football, Marcus Freeman, found himself on the verge of facing battery charges over his son’s high school wrestling drama. It didn’t take long for it to become a national headline, with reports claiming that Freeman had allegedly struck a rival coach. For a brief moment, it looked like a major scandal that could have seriously damaged his career. Fast forward three months, and Freeman opened up about those assault allegations from a wrestling meet, and he didn’t hold back.

In an interview with Esquire, Freeman pointed out how wild it was that ten reporters were actually there at his son’s match, just waiting for something to happen. Even though his team at Notre Dame told everyone to wait for just 2 days for the official police report, the internet didn’t care. He had to sit there and watch people tear into his reputation and his family for an entire weekend before the truth finally came out.

The police actually looked into it, and the story fell apart. They checked out the video footage from the match and saw that Freeman didn’t actually lay a hand on anyone. Because the video proved he was innocent, the prosecutor dropped everything and refused to file any charges. It turns out the whole “battery” claim was just a big misunderstanding, or worse, fabricated. The prosecutor saw through this one and straight called it “a lie.”

“It was a lie,” Marcus Freeman told Brady Langmann of Esquire. “It was what it was. And that’s what the prosecutor said. It was a lie.”

Freeman was especially heated about the “clickbait headlines” that dragged his family through the mud just to get views. He felt like the media valued a juicy story over the facts, and it left a really sour taste in his mouth. He also shared a pretty deep perspective on why he thinks this happened.

“Being a person of color, half Korean, and married to an Italian woman, you have to have empathy,” he says. “That’s something that maybe our country lacks at times. There always has to be an ‘I’m right, or you’re wrong.’ I believe it’s okay to say, ‘I see your side. Here’s what I believe! ”

That’s why he’s calling for more empathy. He’s basically saying that we all need to take a breath and realize it’s okay to see someone else’s side, even if you don’t totally agree with them. He wants people to stop the instant judging and the “gotcha” culture, because, at the end of the day, these headlines involve real families and real lives.

He’s hoping that by speaking out, he can get people to think twice before they hit that “share” on a story that hasn’t been proven yet. Although he’s moving on now to focus on winning the natty, he wants this imbroglio to be a lesson for everyone to be a little more human and a little less quick to attack.

However, Freeman also answered the biggest question when it comes to Notre Dame: Join the conference already!

Why being independent still works for Notre Dame?

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team has stayed independent since 1899. The Big 10 and ACC have tried to lure Notre Dame into their conference. Even the old Big East shot their shot back in some time in the 90s. This is rare in modern college football. But Notre Dame has kept this status for more than a century because of its history, national popularity among Catholics, and a strong TV deal.

Freeman has been asked many times about this topic. On April 14, he spoke about it on a podcast and explained that there are both benefits and drawbacks to being independent. He pointed out that Notre Dame has done well even without a conference, especially when they made the College Football Playoff before.

“The Independents… we look at it as a positive,” he explained. “Listen, we lost two games and didn’t make the playoffs. So, if our administration ever feels like we are truly at a competitive disadvantage by not being in a conference, I’m sure we’ll join a conference. But we just shouldn’t have lost two games. Simple as that.”

Still, there are clear challenges. Notre Dame does not get a conference championship game and must carefully choose strong opponents to impress the playoff committee. If they lose big games early in this season, like they did this past season, it can hurt their chances more than it would for a conference team.

Even with these issues, Freeman seems comfortable with independence, and any final decision about joining a conference would come from Notre Dame’s leadership and financial considerations, not just the coaching staff.