Is it a good thing for college athletes emboldened to chastise coaches?
College athletes emboldened to chastise coaches hardly a bad thing
Two weeks ago, Florida State star offensive lineman Marvin Wilson, an impressive young man from Houston, told the world his head coach had blatantly lied when he said he’d had oneon-one conversations with each of his players.
A team leader with respect on and off the field, Wilson announced he and his teammates were outraged at Mike Norvell’s misrepresentation and would “not be working out until further notice.”
On Monday, Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard noted on social media he was appalled that his mullet-headed coach would proudly sport a T-shirt from a so-called news network generally dismissive of the idea that black lives matter.
It wasn’t about the shirt. Hubbard accurately described Mike Gundy’s choice
of attire as “insensitive to everything going on in society, and it’s unacceptable.”
Are we now in an age when college football players can publicly challenge a head coach? Who wants to live in that world?
Um, I do.
It will be a much better place than the college football world we have known.
Before you push a panic button and vow to never watch the sport again, these moments are not yet movements. The powers that be still hold the power.
That coaches at Iowa, Clemson and Utah have been placed on leave, suspended or bought out in recent weeks because of accusations of racism or for using racial slurs isn’t part of a player uprising.
I mean, we don’t have to debate that, right?
By my definition, what has happened at Florida State and Oklahoma State are not player revolts either.
For one, it’s June. College football might be the impetus for year-round bar fights, but players stepping away from team activities at this time of the year is almost like calling a one-day strike on your day off.
And yet their coaches blinked.
Imagine if a football team walked off the field and refused to play unless its demands were
met with a sellout crowd on its feet after the national anthem had been played.
Oh, then the revolution would be televised.
Such a risk might not be worth the payoff, considering the length of the college football career window, but the bold stances by Wilson and Hubbard were encouraging and impressive.
Their actions elicited apologies and vows to improve from their coaches.
Norvell immediately applauded Wilson for using his platform to hold him accountable.
Gundy and Hubbard appeared together Monday in a hastily put together video in which Gundy said he was “looking forward to making some changes.”
By Tuesday, having experienced more backlash about One America News Network and seeing former players point to troublesome conditions, Gundy was ready to hold a bonfire with the T-shirt.
In a hostage-style read for a video posted by the school, he couldn’t have come across less genuine had he sported one of those kente cloth scarves Democratic congressional leaders embarrassed themselves in last week.
After telling us how “refreshing” OAN was a couple months ago, Gundy wants us to believe he is now “disgusted” by it.
“Black lives matter to me,” Gundy said. “Our players matter to me.”
With his salary of $5 million a year, I do not doubt Gundy’s players do matter to him. A couple months ago, in pushing for a rushed return to campus despite coronavirus concerns, he basically said money was more important than his players’ health.
Another problem: It appears that what matters to his players, most of whom are black, doesn’t necessarily matter to him.
Considering Gundy played with dozens of young black men in the late 1980s and has been in charge of hundreds of young black men in 30 years of coaching, it is amazing he is just now paying attention to issues that affect young black men.
That is why he needed to be called out by a player, though Hubbard says he thinks he went about it the wrong way by posting on Twitter instead of confronting Gundy directly.
“I am a young black man that wants change,” said Hubbard, who turned 21 last week. “I want change that will bring a better experience for my black brothers and sisters at Oklahoma State. It’s that simple.”
Players who wanted change used to have to change schools to get it. And they are criticized when they do that.
Gundy once said players transfer out of weakness because liberalism has led them to leave when the going gets tough instead of bearing down and fighting through it.
Want players to bear down? Some coaches might not like the results.
Far be it from me to dictate what should be important to hardworking young men who have dedicated themselves to practice and training, abused their bodies and risked (quite likely unbeknownst to them) their long-term health for the opportunity to play college football.
But not many revolts will start with balking at running too many sprints in a workout or demanding French dressing be added to the salad bar in the athletic dining room.
These Centennials could be the first generation to have the nerve to demand their coaches recognize their humanity and fight for their rights. That assistant coaches treat them with dignity and respect. That their university remove statues that salute known racists and traitors.
That really isn’t asking too much.
Demanding it could change the college sports world for the better.