Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian Asked About Monkey Story Involving His Assistant Coach

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about his team's recent #MonkeyGate scandal that broke earlier this week and wanted no part of the unusual incident.

Asked Thursday about a report that a monkey belonging to special teams coach Jeff Banks's girlfriend bit a child's finger on Halloween, Sarkisian deflected.

"Not a distraction at all," he told reporters, per Austin American-Statesman’s Brian Davis.

The story, as it was reported, goes as follows.

On Monday night, a Houston-based photographer named Tom Campbell tweeted he had heard from a “reliable source” that a pet monkey belonging to Texas special teams coach Jeff Banks had bitten a child on Halloween.

Banks' girlfriend, Danielle Thomas, then took to Twitter and confirmed elements of the tale. 

Thomas said that the monkey actually belongs to her and the animal is a white-faced capuchin named Gia with her own Instagram page. Gia used to perform alongside Thomas when she was a pole dancer known as the Pole Assassin (who was featured on The Jerry Springer Show).

Thomas explained she set up a haunted house in her yard for Halloween and one of the kids ventured beyond the course of the display toward the area where the monkey is housed. Thomas confirmed she was told a child had been bitten but described the bite as “small” (sic throughout).

Thomas appeared to clear Banks's name in the story but it remains unclear what the coach's involvement in it was. But it still, if only briefed, looped in the Longhorns, who often can't get out of their way.