CALLING OUT OF COACH A SIGN OF THE TIMES
Canadian Hubbard showed college athletes are emerging as the real leaders in society
By Monday night, the Oklahoma State football program was in such a neat and tidy place that the head coach could hug his star running back, social distancing be damned. But it’s instructive to trace how Mike Gundy and Chuba Hubbard arrived at that moment, staged or not, and it will be more important to see what happens next.
“I had to hold him accountable either way,” Hubbard, U.S. college football’s leading rusher in 2019, tweeted on Tuesday morning.
That’s exactly right. How about that for a change in college sports? The player holding the coach accountable. So appropriate. And so powerful.
The specifics of the story are these: Gundy, the Cowboys coach since 2005, wore a T-shirt promoting One America News Network during a fishing trip, and a photo circulated on social media. OAN is often promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump, and often spreads baseless conspiracy theories. In this case, what mattered most is it had called the Black Lives Matter movement a “farce.”
Hubbard, an Edmonton native, took notice of his coach’s sartorial choice. A bunch of his Cowboys teammates and former OSU athletes followed him.
“I will not stand for this,” Hubbard tweeted Monday afternoon. “This is completely insensitive to everything going on in society, and it’s unacceptable. I will not be doing anything with Oklahoma State until things CHANGE.”
Some five hours later, there was Hubbard, embracing Gundy, who said in the video, “I’m looking forward to making some changes, and it starts at the top with me.”
There’s plenty of room to be skeptical about how and why that meeting came about, and Gundy offered no specifics about what would change. The power structure in college athletics long since has been established: Coaches become millionaires — Gundy made more than US$5.1 million in 2019 — on the backs of an unpaid workforce.
What’s at play here, though, is more important for these times than those skewed economics. According to NCAA data from last year, 49 per cent of Division I football players identify as Black. Yet 82 per cent of head coaches are white.
That’s quite an off-kilter structure, one in which it’s not surprising that Gundy could pledge his admiration for an outlet such as OAN and figure there would be no backlash. If he had even an inkling that such a display would rile up his team, what would it matter? The coach makes the money. The coach has the power.
Except look around the U.S. now. Gundy and many of his colleagues fancy themselves as leaders and teachers of men. But they would do well in this case to learn from students.
Hubbard is one. Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence is another. Lawrence, who is white, worked with teammates Mike Jones Jr., Cornell Powell and Darien Rencher — all African-american — to organize a campus protest over the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police last month. At Clemson, the unrest comes amid former stars Deshaun Watson and Deandre Hopkins calling for the school to rename its Calhoun Honors College after something other than a slave owner, not to mention Coach Dabo Swinney trying to explain how an assistant coach who used the N-word went unpunished.
Into that cauldron stepped Lawrence, who took the microphone at Saturday’s rally.
“The past few weeks, I’ve been uncomfortable,” Lawrence told the crowd. “That word — uncomfortable — will be an important one in all of our steps in our journey to bring equality. I’ve learned that every truly good thing in life comes from being brave and stepping into the uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable to set aside everything I know about America and listen to someone else’s perspective. However, it’s necessary.”
It would be nice if Swinney and others in power listened to that mature, thoughtful message.
Take Texas as an example. Several football players and other athletes crafted a message to the university’s athletic and academic leadership.
“We aim to hold the athletic department and university to a higher standard by not only asking them to keep their promise of condemning racism on our campus, but to go beyond this by taking action to make Texas more comfortable and inclusive for the Black athletes and Black community that has so fervently supported this program,” the message said.
So what did Texas coach Tom Herman do? He joined his players in protests.
Maybe, with Hubbard’s leadership, Gundy will get there, too. This isn’t about politics. It’s about listening to people from different backgrounds and trying to understand another viewpoint. What better way to build a team?
After Hubbard posted the conciliatory video Monday night, Hubbard vowed to spotlight the issues that are important to him and his teammates. Clearly, he feels empowered to transform the program for which he plays from within.
“I want change that will bring a better experience for my Black brothers and sisters at Oklahoma State,” he wrote Tuesday.
“It’s that simple . ... Trust me when I say good will come of this.”
The Washington Post