Williamson, Pope make noise off the field
Twice during games this season, Ohio State players made much louder noise on social media than on the field.
In September, senior linebacker K’vaughan Pope quit the team during the second quarter of the Akron game after a heated exchange with coaches, reportedly over not being substituted into the game for a series. Within minutes of exiting to the locker room Pope tweeted “f--ohio state.”
During Saturday’s Rose Bowl game, Marcus Williamson dropped his web bomb from afar, but it created even more explosive fallout. The 2020 graduate and fifth-year senior defensive back did not travel with the Buckeyes to California — “I’m retired ya’ll,” he tweeted — but still made an impact by posting a series of tweets taking aim at untrustworthy coaches and dumb fans and accusing college football of taking advantage of Black players.
A sampling:
“RECRUITS: watch out for a lotta these coaches. this can be a (expletive) business w (expletive) individuals. Use wisdom and discernment when visiting schools.”
“Now that im a fan I gotta say… u fans kno nothing and have some of THE worst football IQ ever … “Almost as bad as some of these coaches.”
Williamson wrote that Black players are being used by the system, posting that as a Black athlete at the highest level he wanted to share guidance for “u go getters coming up.”
The Westerville South and IMG product continued: “POP QUIZ: What American industries rely on free black labor for the lucrative benefit of white men? … It makes you wonder… How much control do these institutions have over our young black boys?”
Williamson then got specific about Ohio State, tweeting a photo of hoodiewearing Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black Floridian fatally shot by George Zimmerman in 2012, and explained, “My first team meeting. (True story 2017) This photo was presented to us via Powerpoint to institute our building wide rule of “no hoods” in the building.”
Immediately the Twitterverse blew up with heated back-and-forths, many defending Ohio State and others going on the attack, including a return appearance by Pope, who tweeted on Tuesday: “You only go to OSU if you want to be: - highly disrespected by the coaching staff (head coach here & there)
- treated unfairly (young guys playing before seniors)
- looked at as a hoodlum (because your vocal)
- treated as if you are not a high caliber player (because i am).
Don’t shoot the messenger, but feel free to poke holes in the message. Is it really unfair for younger players to see the field ahead of seniors if the young players are better?
Former Buckeyes quarterback Cardale Jones came to OSU’S defense, tweeting, “Man, where do I start about Williamson comments about the OSU football program. Trying to paint the program & it’s leaders out to be racist is mind blowing! I can’t speak on his experience but I’m sure a LARGE number of players who played at OSU would disagree with his comments.”
Former defensive back Gareon Conley tweeted: “Reading this buckeye drama.. if bruh had those experiences I’m sorry for you if it’s true I hope you get justice or whatever you feel will help with your situation.. I’ll say my experience at OSU was never racial and I was supported well by the staff that was there at the time.”
College educators, media and fans all cannon-balled into the pool of social media “takes.”
Trying to make sense of it all was former Buckeyes safety Tyvis Powell, who went on Twitter to clarify Williamson’s hoodie tweet. Former OSU players told Powell that a white staffer in the program used the picture of Martin without understanding the potential damage. That person later apologized to the players.
Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer told The Dispatch that until Tuesday he was unaware the Martin photo appeared during a freshman orientation meeting that outlined program rules and protocols. Meyer on Sunday told author Jeff Snook the photo incident “never happened.”
“I didn’t know about it until one hour ago, until after talking to (Powell),” Meyer said Tuesday. “I wasn’t there (in the meeting). None of the coaches were present. It was a support staffer who was in error and apologized.”
Meyer cautioned that playing the race card is unfair to Ohio State, which he said advocates for players as much or more than any program in the nation. He mentioned “Real Life Wednesdays” as an example of OSU caring about athletes by equipping them for life beyond football.
“My biggest thing is you use that ‘R’ word (racism) and it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, people run with it,” Meyer said.
I reached out to Williamson but did
not hear back. I contacted Powell, who explained he wanted everyone to know Williamson was not lying about the situation involving the hoodie and Martin, but also stressed the staffer’s mistake does not make the coaching staff or program racist.
“People think it’s racist to show that photo of Trayvon Martin, and I understand where they’re coming from,” Powell said. “To the black culture that is huge. There will be an uproar whenever that is brought up in a meeting or whatever context. Automatically it is offensive to people.”
Powell said the former players he spoke with “wanted the truth out there that Marcus Williamson was not lying about what he said. All of us former players do not want to discredit him by saying (the Martin photo) did not happen.”
Powell described the situation as the unfortunate case of a staffer being tone deaf to Black concerns, which in turn led to people drawing unfair conclusions about the Ohio State program.
“They automatically assume coach Meyer was racist," said Powell, who played under Mayer from 2012-15. "From my own experience I can say nothing racial or racist was ever going on during my time.”
So what is going on? A lot to unpack here, but to understand why athletes are
speaking up and acting out — as well as opting out of bowl games — it is essential to set their comments against a backdrop of increased player empowerment.
Until fairly recently, players had no easily available platform to voice their concerns. Or if they did, they had no avenue of escape from program punishment beyond transferring out, which meant sitting for one season. Social media and the transfer portal changed that. The ability to criticize or shine light into the darkness is only a tweet away, and the right to gain immediate eligibility via the transfer portal means coaches have less power to control a player’s destiny.
Of course, with more player empowerment comes increased responsibility to publish opinions thoughtfully. Williamson is smart — graduated early from OSU, All-academic Big Ten in 2020 — and I applaud his attempt at trying to bring awareness to the challenges facing Black athletes. But doing so during the Rose Bowl, painting with too broad a brush and taking on a “know nothing” fan base isn’t the best way to be taken seriously.
Pope’s social media rants feel more self-destructive than constructive.
There will be more bumps along the way. Player empowerment remains a work in progress. But be glad it finally gets a chance to progress.