Coaches need to speak out on Floyd

This is the job they wanted. Or at least the one they claimed.

When they went into living rooms, in rich neighborhoods and in poor ones, they looked into mothers’ eyes and vowed not just to coach their sons, but to mold them, to guide them, to love them. They’d turn those kids into men.

So it was neither outlandish nor unfair this week when many of those college football players, who’d been promised a mentor and a guardian, sat waiting for their coaches to prove it.

They weren’t expecting much — just a little public sign of empathy. In a billion-dollar sport in which the amateur athletes are predominately black and the coaches are overwhelmingly white, on a week when the death of George Floyd in Minnesota sparked protests in cities all over the country, it was natural for the players to look for a public show of solidarity.

“They always throw the father figure (expletive) out there,” former Texas quarterback Sherrod Harris said Saturday. “But man, when it’s a situation where we need them at the front, it seems like just PR.”

Harris wasn’t a star at Texas. He

finished his career 10 years ago having played only sparingly as a backup. But all told, his story is much more representative of the typical college football experience than Vince Young’s or Colt McCoy’s, and he likes to think he has a pretty good feel for what lots of players want from their millionaire coaches.

That expectation, obviously, can be different than ones held by fans, or by wealthy donors, or by boards of regents. Many in all of those three groups would just as soon have their coaches talk about nothing but zone-reads and recruiting.

But it’s the coaches themselves who always talk about how they’re selling a family atmosphere and an education that’s about more than football. And really, there should be nothing controversial about condemning the actions of the police officers involved in Floyd’s death.

Decrying racism, and our country’s continued struggle with it, is not exactly a bold, brave stance. It is the least anyone can do.

So, you might ask, what is the point of coaches saying anything, then?

Well, I didn’t play college football, and I’m not black, so I’m probably not qualified to explain it.

But a guy like Jason Robinson is. He had a solid, if unspectacular, career as a defensive back at Boise State from 2007 to 2010, and he spent much of the past few days posting on his Twitter account and wondering why college coaches — and specifically, the Broncos’ Bryan Harsin — weren’t using their massive platforms to speak up.

For a while, not many did. As of Friday afternoon, only two major-conference coaches — Indiana’s Tom Allen and Georgia Tech’s Geoff Collins — had addressed the week’s biggest story. From Friday night into Saturday midday, big names from Oregon’s Mario Cristobal to Texas’ Tom Herman to Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly and dozens of others had offered public statements on the subject.

Most spoke in generalities, with language unlikely to challenge or offend anyone but virulent racists. But the way Robinson explained it, the mere act of coaches saying anything meant something.

And when he posted a long video Saturday afternoon asking why Harsin had not joined his peers yet, Robinson made clear that “what you say in the locker room” isn’t enough.

“What are you going to do in public?” Robinson said. “What are you going to do to show the community where you stand?

What are you going to do to show those boosters, ‘I know you might not like this talking point, but I have to have my guys’ backs?’

“You should not be coaching football today in America if you do not have the ability to stand up for your players.”

A few hours later, Harsin, a former UT assistant, released a statement on his Twitter account.

“With what is going on right now in our country, it has become clear that the conversations we have as a team need to spread beyond our walls,” Harsin wrote. “The hate, the discord, the belief that voices are falling on deaf ears — it needs to change. Now.”

Again, that’s a good sentiment, even if it’s rather clear-cut, and even if a cynical reader could view it as one Harsin was shamed into making. In fact, most of the statements could be viewed that way, if you’re so inclined. Coaches always are recruiting, after all.

But forget the not-sohidden motivations for a moment. If coaches want to call themselves father figures, and there is an issue of monumental importance that affects the lives of the young men they promised to lead, silence isn’t an option.

For now, maybe they’re just doing this out of social media obligation. But perhaps by just engaging in the discussion, as vague and superficial as it might be, they’re getting a little bit closer to following through on their promises. And maybe next time it will be a little easier for them to say something meaningful.

“We’d all love to see it,” Harris said. “We truly would.”

Lenny Ignelzi / Associated Press Boise State football coach Bryan Harsin tweeted Saturday about the need for change in the wake of George Floyd’s death, but only after being called out by a former player for his silence.