Dogs put down the football for day, broach social issues

As players came to him about NBA protests, Smart sought action.

ATHENS — Monty Rice sent out a tweet Wednesday that, by itself, didn’t look great for Georgia. The senior inside linebacker appeared to be calling out the Bulldogs’ coaching staff for reprimanding players for expressing their opinions regarding the Black Lives Matter movement and the perception of social injustice being committed around the country.

Apparently, coach Kirby Smart and his staff were paying attention, because there has been a lot of activism since, on social media and in the meeting rooms at the Butts-Mehre football complex.

Smart said Georgia did not practice Thursday so they could focus instead on talking about what he

described as “social injustice issues going on in our country.”

“Our players have brainstormed and they came up with all kinds of ideas we think we can do to take action,” Smart said in a videoconference with reporters after Saturday’s scrimmage at Sanford Stadium. “Because I’m big on action. That’s my big thing. I’m not just going to issue a statement or words; we want action. Our guys came up with an action list of items, probably 17 or 18 things, and we’re just taking them on one by one and try to be very intentional about what we do.”

At least one of those initiatives could be viewed on all of UGA’s social media platforms Thursday. Georgia

football’s considerable creative staff put together a video featuring Smart, assistant coaches Cortez Hankton and Dan Lanning, sophomore linebacker Azeez Ojulari and other players to “use our energy to change the country.”

Rice is not included in that video, but away from the field and the cameras, the star linebacker probably has the most to say about the central issue that has provoked protests, riots and social disharmony throughout the country all summer.

Rice’s cousin, Haraesheo Rice, was killed by police gunfire in September 2017 in what family and witnesses characterize as an extreme overuse of force. Haraesheo suffered from schizophrenia. That happened during Monty’s freshman season at Georgia.

“We used to live together, so I was real close to him,” Monty Rice told the AJC in 2018. “I’m not a big social media guy, but I don’t want his name to ever be forgotten. I don’t want what happened to be, ‘Ah, this is just another killer.’ I want it to be known what happened to my cousin.”

It appeared Smart might have been referencing Rice’s situation when he talked about the discussions he has had with current Georgia

players regarding the BLM movement.

“It’s not all about just what (players) see on TV,” Smart said. “That certainly is what sparks it, but it’s the personal experiences each one of them has had in their family or in their community. Sometimes that resonates with them, an experience a young man had with his mom, an experience a young man had with his brother. When you sit there as a head coach and you just listen, you realize how it affects each player differently.

“One of the most important things I’ve learned in this process is: Listen twice as much as you talk. And we’ve done a lot of listening.”

Smart said he has “relied heavily on the Black men on our staff ” — including Hankton, Dell McGee, Tray Scott, Charlton Warren and Jonas Jennings — to organize and spearhead the players’ efforts “to affect social change.”

Smart said he decided he needed to take action after a couple of players reached out to him Wednesday night when NBA players boycotted games.

“I started getting players reaching out saying, ‘Coach, let’s talk. Let’s revisit this.’” Smart said. “We had talked about it earlier in the summer, but since camp had started … we hadn’t really shared as a team. Dell, Cortez and Jonas thought it would be a good time, and we have a tremendous staff here. We let the players share Thursday. What was supposed to be a quick meeting, then go on to our football stuff, ended up being 3½ hours of each guy sharing. It turned into brainstorming, coming up with some ideas. We didn’t do any football that day. Football wasn’t important.”

Smart said it’s important for Georgia fans and supporters to take time to listen and try to empathize with the young Black men who wear the school’s colors.

“I don’t think we as coaches or that our donors, our alumni, our fans, I don’t think people in the country realize how it affects each young man differently,” Smart said. “When you show empathy and you listen, you hear about their experiences . ...

“They want to make a change. They want 100% of the student-athletes to vote. They’re issuing challenges that need to be done and I’m really proud of them for that.”

Rice has tweeted just once since all this happened, and that was on Thursday when he retweeted the video Georgia had produced.

He added a comment: “Together we help make the world a better place!”

TONY WALSH / UGA Because he has had a personal experience with the issues of the day — with the death of his cousin — UGA linebacker Monty Rice (left) is perhaps one of the most vocal players on social justice.

CONTRIBUTED BY CHAMBERLAIN SMITH Coach Kirby Smart says players thought of action items right off the bat the team could use.