Playing the statement game
Heupel praises team in using their platform to inspire, create change
UCF coach Josh Heupel sees sports as a great tool to help create change in America.
“Sports, to me, is the greatest platform of society,” Heupel said Thursday when asked about his role in educating his football players about social justice. “They come from all walks of life. We’ve got big and we’ve got small. We’ve got Black, we’ve got brown, we’ve got white, but when you come into a team setting, everyone is treated equally.
“You’re
ultimately working next to somebody who’s got a completely different background than you do, but all of a sudden you find out there’s a lot of things that are way more similar than they are different.”
Heupel spoke one day after an unprecedented display of solidarity among teams from the NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball and MLS, who chose to boycott games to protest police brutality. The spark was a video showing police officers in Kenosha, Wis., shooting Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, seven times in the back during an arrest.
Several NFL teams, including the Indianapolis Colts, canceled workouts, while USF and Boston College canceled their football practices. Boston College announced it used the time to discuss how to help bring the community together and inspire change.
The Knights held a walkthrough Thursday morning, but the topic of social justice isn’t far from the minds of the players and coaching staff.
“Everybody is aware of what’s going on and it’s not just one conversation it’s a continuing dialogue that you have to have with your players,” Heupel said. “You look at the violence that’s taken place in Wisconsin and over the last couple of months across America and you’re concerned as a coach with your players and their safety, making sure they return back in the same way that they left the building.”
Heupel said the players have done a good job sharing their thoughts and have presented a lot of good ideas to the staff.
“They’ve helped me grow as a coach,” he said.
The third-year coach said it’s important to continue to educate the players while supplying them an avenue to share their feelings and thoughts inside the program — and out of it.
“I think all of those are ways we can help in change the dialogue here in America,” Heupel said. “Ultimately, hopefully, sports can change the dialogue, change the conversation and change society.”