“It’s not about us, we just wanted to use our platform to take a stance for a fellow concerned student on an issue, especially being as though a fellow black man’s life was on the line,” Missouri defensive back Ian Simon said while flanked by wide receiver J’Mon Moore and defensive end Charles Harris. “Due to the end of the hunger strike, we will be ending our solidarity strike to not practice and returning to our normal schedule as football players. It is a privilege to be playing for the University of Missouri’s football team and we are very thankful for this opportunity. We love the game, but at the end of the day, it is just that — a game.
“Through this experience, we’ve really began to bridge that gap between student and athlete in the phrase student-athlete by connecting with the community and realizing the bigger picture. We will continue to build with the community and support positive change on Mizzou’s campus. Though we don’t experience everything the general student body does and our struggles may look different at times, we are all Concerned Student 1950.”
“Let this be a testament to all athletes across the country,” Harris said. “That you do have power. It started with a few individuals on our team and look at what it has become, look at where it’s at right now. This is nationally known and it started with just a few.”
And that’s the scary part, if you are a sports administrator now. As an athletic director at a school in a Power Five conference (“The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.” – no shit, Sherlock.) told USA TODAY Sports,
“That’s the scary part about it. Something can come out of nowhere in a hurry.”
The person, as well as an athletic director at another Power Five conference school, separately emphasized the need, more than ever before, for proactive and consistent communication with student-athletes.
The first athletic director’s initial reaction was: “Man, I’m glad it’s not me — and then I thought, ‘Are we doing enough to have lines of communication open with our student athletes?’ ”
They aren’t really scared about political statements (probably because they aren’t right-wing hacks like Ben Shapiro, who actually wrote of the players without a trace of irony that “Their only job, after all, is to play football.“). What they’re scared of is the student-athletes turning their sights on things that cost ADs real money, which, after all, was the implicit threat behind the Missouri players’ stance. Here’s a scenario from Andy Staples that illustrates that:
Now imagine if players in an entire conference decided they wanted lifetime medical coverage for injuries incurred while playing college football. Or imagine they decided that they merely wanted a bigger cut of the millions that currently go to their coaches, their athletic directors, their locker room waterfalls and to subsidize sports on their campus that don’t make any money. Here are a few potential courses of action and their likely results.
- They could write a strongly worded letter. That would be ignored.
- They could sue. That would take years.
- They could threaten to skip their games. They would have everyone’s attention immediately.
If they did it, the schools, conference and NCAA could do absolutely nothing but begin negotiating. Why? Because those groups gave the athletes the power the moment they got into the business of producing and selling television shows. Then, in an attempt to defend their economic model in court and before the National Labor Relations Board, they took away any opportunity they would have had to threaten retaliation.
The Pac-12 and Big Ten own pieces of their eponymous television networks. The SEC takes a huge licensing fee from ESPN to take part in the SEC Network. All the leagues sell games—television shows, essentially—to networks independent of any conference cable network deal. Media companies pay through the nose for the right to broadcast those television shows. How mad would they be at the people who sold them those shows if the casts suddenly didn’t show up for scheduled episodes?
What could the schools do in such a situation? Nothing. They can’t revoke the players’ scholarships, because the NCAA’s attorneys have spent years spitting out court filings that claim the key reason athletes should not be paid to play college sports is that they are simply members of the student body participating in an extracurricular activity. Northwestern’s attorneys argued to the NLRB that athletes are not employees because they are, in fact, regular students. “Northwestern considers its students who participate in NCAA Division I sports, including those who receive athletic scholarships, to be students, first and foremost,” Northwestern vice president for university relations Alan Cubbage wrote in a statement on March 26, 2014. “We believe that participation in athletic events is part of the overall educational experience for those students, not a separate activity.”
Of course athletes are different from regular students. Of course the athletic scholarship is a form of compensation that has far less to do with school than it does with sports. But when you’ve spent years pretending under oath that athletes are average students and their scholarships aren’t tied to their performance on the field, then you can’t yank their scholarships for organizing a boycott. That’s something regular students do a lot. They belong to a very idealistic age group. Protests are part of the deal on a college campus.
To discipline players who boycott would be an admission that their scholarship is compensation for their athletic participation. (Again, of course it’s compensation for athletic participation. The people in charge have chosen to pretend it isn’t.) It would also be an admission that revenue sport athletes aren’t regular students. Regular students wouldn’t lose their financial aid for protesting peacefully.
You can call it awakening the sleeping giant.
“Our student-athletes are smarter than they’ve ever been before,” the first athletic director said. “We’ve worked hard to educate them about where cost-of-attendance (funding) comes from and tell them about their rights and privileges. They’re more aware than ever before.”
Or creating a monster. Either way, it’s a problem. Schools have made their beds and now they’re worried they’re gonna have to lie in them.
It’s about financial control and the fear of that slipping away. The most unattractive part of this has to be how decentralized the threat is. In the absence of a national players’ union, a wildcat strike of SEC players that gets resolved has no effect on, say, Big Ten players and schools. Yet player unionization is anathema to D-1 schools right now.
How carefully can you calibrate throwing bones to the kids to keep a lid on things? That’s a balancing act that I’m not sure the likes of Jim Delany are capable of pulling off, but we’ll see. Because one way or another, another blow up is a growing possibility.
I get what you’re saying about the players and their new found power in the negotiations. But before we bestow Sainthood on these athletes, let’s take a look at the demands that they went on strike to emphasize. That a University President and a University System Chancellor were forced out, likely by the Governor, as a result of this insanity is a travesty, regardless of their failures, real or perceived. That a student body freaks out to this extent over hurt feelings isn’t all that unheard of. I was a student at UGA when Harrick was fired, with very real animus existing on campus towards Michael Adams. The adults in the room listened to the angry students, acknowledged they were angry, and then told them to go back to class. The didn’t fire the executive staff over a bunch of students pitching a fit.(Also, this is not a defense of Michael Adams. He should have been forced out for a variety of reasons, but those reasons did not include a bunch of 18-23 years acting like my toddler when she is asked to eat anything other than yogurt for dinner.)
List of Demands:
We demand that University of Missouri System President, Tim Wolfe, writes a hand-written apology to Concerned Student 1-9-5-0 demonstrators and holds a press conference in the Mizzou Student Center reading the letter. In the letter and at the press conference, Tim Wolfe must acknowledge his white privilege, recognize that systems of oppression exits, and provide a verbal commitment to fulfilling Concerned Student 1-9-5-0 demands. We want Tim Wolfe to admits his gross negligence, allowing his driver to hit one of the demonstrators, consenting to the physical violence of bystanders, and lastly refusing to intervene when Columbia Police Department used excessive force with demonstrators.
We demand the immediate removal of Tim Wolfe as UM system president. After his removal, a new amendment to thd UM system policies must be established to have all future UM system president and Chancellor positions be selected by a collective of students, staff, and faculty of diverse backgrounds.
We demand that the University of Missouri meets the Legion of Black Collegians’ demands that were presented in the 1969 for the betterment of the black community.
We demand that the University of Missouri creates and enforces comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum throughout all campus departments and units, mandatory for all students, faculty, staff and administration. This curriculum must be vetted, maintained, and overseen by a board comprised of students, staff and faculty of color.
We demand that by the academic year 2017-18, the University of Missouri increases the percentage of black faculty and staff members campus-wide by 10 percent.
We demand that the University of Missouri composes a strategic 10-year plan on May, 1 2016 that will increase retention rates for marginalized students, sustain diversity curriculum and training, and promote a more safe and inclusive campus.
We demand that the University of Missouri increases funding and resources for the University of Missouri Counseling Center for the purpose of hiring additional mental health professionals, particularly those of color, boosting mental health outreach and programming across campus, increasing campus-wide awareness and visibility of the counseling center, and reducing lengthy wait times for prospective clients.
We demand that the University of Missouri increases funding, resources and personnel for the social justice centers on campus for the purpose of hiring additional professionals, particularly those of color, boosting outreach and programming across campus and increasing campus-wide awareness and visibility.
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Someone scrawled a Swastika onto a bathroom wall in feces. I’m no fan of “Safe Spaces as Swords”, as a friend put it, but the Missouri administration didn’t really handle a string of recent and legitimate racist incidents well. At all. This isn’t about hurt feelings.
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should they have sent CSI to investigate the poopstika?
Grief counselor for the people that saw or smelled the poopstika?
I’m really curious.
As an aside, when peopled defiled the bathrooms in Russell Hall (broekn ceiling tiles, wet toilet paper thown against the walls and worse) after big game weekends, the janitorial staff would not clean up the mess on Monday to get the message across that if adults are going to act like children, they can bare the consequences
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Big game weekends? Hell, it was every weekend.
I remember once in 91-92 the drunks on my hall in Russell built a little house out of ceiling tiles in the bathroom. When the RA asked the custodian if he was going to clean it up, he responded, and I quote, “I ain’t doin’ nothin’. They might be a dead body in there.”
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What, in your opinion, should have been done about the swastika incident?
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No one in AD offices cares whether the issue behind the threatened strike was silly or profound. You should not care either, unless you are a Tim Wolfe fan.
What you should care about is how do the schools give some meaningful voice to players. If the only means that players hove to voice concerns about any issue, be the issue frivolous or life or death is to threaten to sit out games. then that threat will be raised over everything. There is a way to allow players some voice that keeps the economic model intact that allows players to +raise issues without the threat of strike.
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They have to be legitimate issues. Start allowing things like that for frivolous issues and there will be no end to it. There is not evidence that I have heard of making any other attempt to resolve whatever real or frivolous issue resolved.
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I would argue that the demands being so strong are also due in part to their youth and passion, something I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of at one point in our lives.
To minimalize the culture going on at Mizzou as “hurt feelings” is an attempt to discredit what a whole lot of people have been saying for a whole lot of years at Mizzou and is pretty insulting to them.
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I’m glad to discredit these students b/c the premise of oppression at a college campus (with all its “microagressions”) is discreditable.
A drunk kid yelling a slur, an anonymous car yelling a slur and a poopstika might well hurt your feelings. But your hurt feelings don’t justify ruining the careers and lives of the administrators.
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Sure – it’s just a handful of <a href = “http://www.columbiamissourian.com/from_readers/from-readers-mu-faculty-member-shares-stories-of-racism/article_69d9487c-8644-11e5-910b-238aa5321294.html>students crying over hurt feelings. I’m just going to defer to Doug’s comments below because his criticism sums up what is driving a lot of these comments and quit arguing this with people that won’t even attempt to understand why these folks might be upset in the first place.
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Let me reiterate: I don’t care about why “these folks” are upset b/c the premise that a “microagression” is cause to ruin the lives of administrators is lamentable. The EXACT same thing could happen in Athens and it would be a tragedy if our President had to step down.
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There was no demand that Wolfe step down because these things occurred. He was forced out because he allowed the perception to arise that he did not care. That was and is on Wolfe. All the guy had to do was take the complaints and the complainants seriously.
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And how do you know he didn’t? Are you simply making the assumption that if a complaint was made it is therefore valid?
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Whether he did or didn’t the perception was created and he fell to it. That perception that Wolfe allowed to be created and he apologized for was the reason for the hunger strike and the reaction of the football team. Clearly, whatever he did wasn’t enough. Had he done X, y and z don’t you think the administration could have pointed those and convinced the team that the hunger striker was not being reasonable?
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It really hasn’t been my experience that unreasonable people become reasonable when they are confronted by facts.
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So the black players on the Mizzou football team are just unreasonable people?
Weren’t you the one who complained (just look above) about unsubstantiated claims? I think you have two different standards. One for yourself and one for others.
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Have you heard one word of this situation prior to this week. Look back at the player interviews pre or post game for any game this year. If these supposed long standing problems were so important and so bothersome so egregious why is it just coming to light now and in this way. Many of the players has a mic and or camera stuck in their face several times over the last several months and some the last few years. Yet they said nothing about it. I would say they were used as a means to an end more than anything.
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Let me just add that I’ve spent lots of time in St. Louis and Kansas City over the last four years and a lot of this attitude is out there in the open. Ferguson was just symptom of the disease.
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You’re right.
A large portion of the US believes it’s ok to fight cops and not face consequences.
Question: How many punches should I be allowed to level at a cop before it’s a crime? Just so we know.
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Since you asked: 1
The real question is how many times can you throw a punch at an officer and not get shot? You shoot somebody who is unarmed you go to jail. Why are police officers allowed more leeway to protect themselves than you are? If you want to analyze police misconduct, view it as if the officer were just another person. If you snatched a teenage girl out of her chair and threw her for being disrespectful and not listening, they will put your ass in jail…and quick. If anything, police officers should be expected to have MORE restraint not less. After all they are supposed to be trained and protecting and serving US right?
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So I can punch a guy with a gun and a uniform once and it’s not a crime but beyond that, no dice.
Makes sense.
How many times have you punched a uniform cop?
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It’s a crime. But it shouldn’t be a capital crime.
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Sorry if I left that impression. I was trying to say 1 punch IS a crime. I’ve never punched a police officer. I have wanted to punch a police officer on occasion.
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How many corrupt police officers and judges does it take to acknowledge a town might have a problem with biased policing and criminal justice against persons of color? A large portion of the US also believes in equal protection and treatment under the law. Two can play this game.
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So how many punches?
And yes, I’ve read about how racist it is to expect people of color to have driver’s licenses, insurance, current tags, car seats, etc.
Which leads to the next logical question: which traffic citations can be disregarded for people of color and which one can’t?
Just curious.
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Ah – the old tried and true; if I can discredit one incident, it makes them all null and void. You’re basically asking me another version of “when did you stop beating your wife” so I’m done with you.
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I went through a license check recently in a large city. I’m a middle aged white guy driving a pick up. I have an expired tag. No proof of insurance. No seat belt on. I was waived through. I wasn’t even asked to put on my seat belt. I’ve driven my pick up truck for years without a seat belt on since the seat belt law was passed. Never been stopped. I don’t suspect that I will. White privilege is real. I am very confident that had my demographics been different that my interaction with the police would have been different.
Recently I had the occasion to look at a black man’s driving record. He is in his early 30’s. He only had 4 tickets in his life. Every one of them was in a former “don’t let the sun set on your black ass” county when he had the misfortune of going through there back and forth to college.
You can deny reality all you want but we do not live in any post-racial society. Moreover, we need to see police abuses more through the lens of power than race. One, it’s more solvable through that lens and frankly its more accurate. Sure there are racist cops. The truth is that, for the most part, abuse of powerful is directed at the powerless of all stripes. This is where I part with BLM. Everybody needs to realize that we ALL have a stake in the police behaving themselves. Racism is only part of the problem. Cops acting like marines in fallujah is the main problem.
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bravo for not getting a ticket. I got one last week in Oliver, GA. Which apparently is the 2nd biggest speed trap in GA. And what did I do? I apologized for speeding and drove away. Because he has a gun and a badge.
I’m all for cops not being jerks. But the reason Michael Brown got shot was b/c he was fighting a cop. Just like the white kid in Michigan that died earlier this year.
White privilege? I guess that explains why the po-lice are killing mo crackers than people of color. Cuz they so privileged.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/21/police-kill-more-whites-than-blacks-but-minority-d/?page=all
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There’s both a race problem and a police problem. They can exist at the same time. As I said above the bigger issue isn’t race, its abuse of power. Its the militarization of police. Its better to fight it on grounds other than race because its more easily solved and in everybody’s interests.
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I’m down with that point
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It’s not about sainthood, man. It’s about power.
Will you be happier if the players use the same tactics to further their personal goals, rather than political ones?
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Personally, I think it was a foregone conclusion that Wolfe and Loftin were going to be forced to resign before the team announced the strike. The wheels were in motion when the Governor announced his support for the aggrieved parties.
I think the team hitched their wagon to a cause out of solidarity with an unserious demand by unserious people. That doesn’t change the fact that the team exercised a quite powerful tool for their cause. My issue is that they used that bullet on something that is largely irrelevant to college football, predominantly, not a sympathetic cause amongst, broadly speaking. So my fear is that they wasted a powerful bullet on something.
I’m a mere sales rep with no real insight into anything, but I think too much power is being ascribed to these guys and the effect it had on the process, for this one. i do get why it’s a big deal in general should all players in the SEC decide they’re on strike till they get paid.
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The published timeline of events suggests you’re not correct.
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I still think the wheels were in motion, but you’re correct on the official timing. I saw Gov. Nixon’s statement about racism and intolerance Sunday before I saw the news about the Mizzou strike. I was late to the party, but thought the team announced their strike early afternoon on Sunday, with the full support by Pinkel later that day.
Dang it. Now I have to add the Senator to the list of people who won’t let me win an argument. My wife will enjoy the company. 🙂
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I don’t understand how they can’t lose their scholarship. If I’m on a band scholarship, and I decide I hate the tuba, do you think the school is going to renew my band scholarship? I don’t think they will.
To me, it’s the same with athletic scholarship if the person voluntarily gives up the sport. I think the school is well within their rights to not renew the scholarship, and then they really will become regular students.
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There’s a difference between renewing it at the end of the year and yanking it RIGHT NOW, which is what some were saying. (Also, don’t know if Missouri made the switch to 4-year athletic scholarships or if they are still year to year, which would further complicate the matter.)
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Mostly because the schools have spent so much time and money arguing that the scholarships are not because of football. To then pull the scholarship because of football sort of negates the 5 years worth of arguments that you have been making.
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I have not heard anyone make the argument that a student athletes scholarship is not because they are gifted in their given sport or that an academic scholarship is not because they are gifted academically.
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Maybe you should actually read before jumping to whatever #hottakes you have. The Senator posted this directly from Andy Staples’ article DIRECTLY ABOVE:
“What could the schools do in such a situation? Nothing. They can’t revoke the players’ scholarships, because the NCAA’s attorneys have spent years spitting out court filings that claim the key reason athletes should not be paid to play college sports is that they are simply members of the student body participating in an extracurricular activity. Northwestern’s attorneys argued to the NLRB that athletes are not employees because they are, in fact, regular students. “Northwestern considers its students who participate in NCAA Division I sports, including those who receive athletic scholarships, to be students, first and foremost,” Northwestern vice president for university relations Alan Cubbage wrote in a statement on March 26, 2014. “We believe that participation in athletic events is part of the overall educational experience for those students, not a separate activity.”
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Not one word of that disputed what I said.
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I suppose because you used the qualifier “gifted” with respect to academics, it can’t be disproven. However, the schools have argued they aren’t on scholarships for athletics. They argue they are on scholarships to go to school (gifted or not) and participate in extracurricular activities such as athletics.
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The schools are correct. The scholarships whether academic or athletic fun the recipients ability to attend classes and provides them an opportunity to obtain an education.
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And by immediately revoking the scholarships, as you’ve suggested, because they’re doing things other college kids do (i.e. participating in a school protest), the schools would all but admit they are not scholarships for academics / athletics, but rather terms of employment for athletic services. Hence why Mizzou would never have done that because they’ve been a part of the cartel arguing for years that athletes are indeed students and not employees.
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Absolutely not. If there is a student attending school on a Chemistry scholarship that refused to take a required chemistry classes. I would hope the school would revoke that individuals scholarship as well.Same offense same result.
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Would that student’s refusal cost the school $1 million?
Leverage kinda changes the equation, if you ask me.
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To me principle is more important than money.
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Keep moving those goalposts, man. When Chemistry students become essential cogs in a multi-billion $ entertainment industry, then your comparison would be equating apples to apples. As it stands now they’re not and whether you like it or not, football players at an SEC school have a wee bit more sway than your garden-variety Chemistry student. Colleges aren’t being threatened with the possibility of lawsuits by a coalition of Chemistry students to share those television $’s with them. The solution to this problem isn’t as simple as just telling the football players to shut up and kick them out of school no matter how much you seem to think it is. I’m failing to understand why you can’t grasp this in this particular situation. Mizzou can’t just kick the players off scholarship.
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Except for the last sentence, all your points are correct. They are just completely irrelevant to the point at hand.
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If the point hasn’t hit you based on both mine and the Senator’s comments as to why Mizzou couldn’t just kick the football players off scholarship because they threatened to not play a football game, you’re either being intellectually dishonest or just contrary for the sake of being contrary.
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I got the point perfectly. I just know for me money is way less important than principle.
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That’s probably why you’re not a D-1 head football coach. 😉
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It is probably one of many reasons. 🙂
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Just because principle is more important than money to you (which cool – that’s your prerogative), it doesn’t invalidate the actual fact pattern the Senator and I have pointed out about why Mizzou did exactly what it did as you keep positing our comments as irrelevant. So basically – you’re arguing just for the sake of being contrarian. Got it.
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No. I just believe they could have made different decisions in spite of the probable loss of money. Just because any amount of money could have been at stake. Their options were still the same as if no money was at stake.
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Gary Pinkel and the Missouri administration acted stupidly. They should have revoked the scholarships and played with walk ons if that is what it took. But those of the PC crowd just couldn’t do it. Stupidity like this will end up destroying College Athletics.
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Pinkel would’ve lost all ability to recruit any legit players had he done this and would be fired when his team drops games 70-3 week after week.
It’s not cowardice to cash a 4 million dollar paycheck and say “yeah, I think I”m gonna say what needs to be said so I keep that paycheck”.
It’s logic.
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I don’t really agree with that. If he had administration support, as he should have. Then why would he lose his job?
As far as recruiting most of these high school kids would love the immediate playing time at an SEC school.
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Plus, it has often been poorly reported, but Pinkel handled it extremely well.
Here is a direct quote of his (and the AD’s) statement. Note that the entire-team strike was for none of the demands listed above. The criteria for the team returning to practice and play was solely that the student on the hunger strike eat. Pinkel went from having a divided team with part of the football team on strike supporting all the demands above and the rest not supporting them, to the entire team united, but with a much more reasonable goal.
“Today, Sunday, there will be no football practice or formal team activities. Our focus right now is on the health of Jonathan Butler, the concerns of our student-athletes and working with our community to address this serious issue. After meeting with the team this morning, it is clear they do not plan to return to practice until Jonathan resumes eating. We are continuing to have department, campus, and student meetings as we work through this issue and will provide further comment tomorrow afternoon.”
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Gary Pinkel handled it perfectly. He had no control or input into the retention or firing of the school president. His only control was over keeping lines of communication open to his players, and keeping his players’ trust. Why is that important? If the school did not fire the president the school would want the players to end their strike and play. By showing respect for the players he would have been the only Missouri administrator the players would have confidence in to discuss ways to end the strike.
It is obvious that there was a lot more to the campus wide unrest over Wolfe’s leadership than merely feces on a wall. Pinkel may have read the prevailing winds and understood that Wolfe was a goner. If he had taken the “take away the scholarships” approach, once the president got fired and the players’ goals were met, Pinkel would have been the bad guy. Now he is a good guy, the team is back at practice, and the team believes Pinkel has their backs.
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It’s amazing how strong a stance commenters on an internet blog take when they can do it from behind their keyboards and not actually face the situation, isn’t it?
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Yet another addition to changing nature of the college football landscape. If the players don’t play and the stadiums are empty, who will be there to hear that ear-splitting hip hop? Will the ticket holders be reimbursed? And the vendors? And the scalpers? Just a few of the several questions that might arise. 🙂
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Well they got their scalp. For insufficient sensitivity, as far as I can tell.
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I consider the students’ demands laughable, and I doubt that Wolfe’s actions were racist or insensitive. The protesters seem to have adopted the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton model of racial justice. Their own outrage is proof that they have legitimate complaints. My children would agree.
However, I have little sympathy for a college administrator done in by excessive PC demands. One doesn’t rise to such heights in academia except through paying homage to the PC gods. Once those gods demand sacrifice, so be it.
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Calling Jim Harbaugh.
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Just another step in the direction of destroyi
ng college football as we know it. Good? Bad? Doesn’t matter. But in the end I promise the athletes will be hurt. Not the stars, oh no, but the other 50 or so players who love the game. How many players does he NFL have to have on a roster. When we start pay for play, those 50 are the first to go.. It’ll just be the NFL jr. I don’t watch the NFL…..l
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not really about what you want to watch on TV on Saturdays. More about the lives of the people actually living through it.
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This is the world that those left wing fanatics created in their academic utopias. The social justice jihadis want their pound of flesh, so they’re turning on whoever is nearby, in this case, University presidents. The thing is, most of these examples of racism spouted by this activist group is mostly anecdotal, but that doesn’t matter, because if you’re out to change the world, you have to glom onto anything, no matter how tenuous.
And yes, we all love our college football, that’s why we’re here, but the football programs at the Power 5 schools wield too much power. Look at Tallahassee…if the social justice jihadis want to whine about a rape culture, THERE’S where you can look, at the FSU football team. But strangely, they don’t want to talk about that case, they’d rather make stuff up like in Virginia or Duke.
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I thought the Mizzou campus was one of the most tolerant and accepting campuses in the country? From the Prez on down to the student body. It was just 20 short months or so ago that the University was lauded for its position and acceptance of Michael Sam coming out as a gay football player. How in only such a short time has this campus been overtaken with overt racism and intimidation to minority students?
I guess I’m missing something here…
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it doesn’t matter…the left will eat its own. The Revolution needs blood, I imagine the Social Justice Jihadis would prefer to take out right wingers, but there’s very little of those on campus, so lets just find the highest ranking white guy and take him out…
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Is it not ironic that a group of minority athletes who contend they are used and appreciated only for their athletic ability got used like this by a special interest? Is it not ironic that the minority group on a college campus that gets the absolute best treatment of any student group so quickly identified with those that felt oppressed? Somebody did a good job of coaching these guys up in a hurry.
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The athletes for “used by a special interest”? Which special interest would that be? Their own classmates?
Just as the definition of “cult” is “whichever church is down the street from yours,” it’s certainly easy to define “special interest” as “whichever group doesn’t agree with me,” isn’t it? The conservative movement has set its sights on everyone from Planned Parenthood to Disney to Rachel Ray to get what it wants, but some college students rise up to decry the indifference of their school’s administration and all of a sudden we’re talking “social justice jihadis” and bloody revolution. Un-clutch your pearls and arise from your fainting couches, kids. It’s all fun and games until someone you agree with gets hurt.
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“The conservative movement has set its sights on everyone from Planned Parenthood to Disney to Rachel Ray to get what it wants,”
https://twitter.com/cafedotcom/status/663885841467441152
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pay back’s a bitch.
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Funny thing is, a ton of the morons bringing back all their reactionary 90s terms (“PC culture” “Special Snowflakes”) to complain about the Mizzou situation are also having pants-wetting fits about red Starbucks cups (where you can still purchase “Christmas blend” coffee and advent calendars, but sure, you’re totally oppressed.)
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Yuuuuppppppp.
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or that this is totally a free market response to a slight. You dont like something stand up and do something about it.
I dont understand why people who love free markets wouldn’t support what appears to me to be a totally free market response something they dont like.
It seems that it meets several stated pillars of conservatives. Free markets and personal accountability. Yet the visceral response to these principles in action has been rather negative.
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Honestly – it’s more the folks carrying the messages than it is the actions themselves. Which is what is getting lost in both of these situations, IMO.
Bitching each and every year about what new way that the world is persecuting you with its “War on Christmas” is an easy way to be seen as the boy crying wolf.
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https://twitter.com/billmon1/status/664143155231518721
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And you can honestly say the Mizzou case is not an example of the “liberal/progressive movement setting its sights on the Mizzou administration to get what it wants?”
See how easy it is to take your template and plug in examples from the other side? Your opinion then is all about whose ox is getting gored.
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How about instead of taking sides, we just try to understand and empathize why a group of people may be upset or threatened instead of jumping to #hottakes conclusions based on what Rush Limbaugh or Rachel Maddow said we need to conclude?
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why don’t we think critically?
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That would be what I suggested with not jumping to conclusions, no? 🙂
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You and many of the other conservative-leaning commenters here seem to imply that Concerned Student 1950 and the MU football players were having their strings pulled by some larger “movement.” Who would that be? Al Sharpton? The Black Panthers? SPECTRE?
And do you really not see how insulting it is to just assume that a minority student group had to have someone telling them what to do, as if they wouldn’t have been smart, coordinated, or dedicated enough to raise this issue otherwise?
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No more insulting than it is for you to suggest that people with a more conservative opinion than your own can’t act on those opinions without being puppets — that they’re smart, coordinated or dedicated enough to raise their own issues.
Ah, but that would require you to admit that some conservatives might be smart, and you just know that can’t be true.
And, by the way, I didn’t even consider that the kids at Mizzou weren’t acting entirely on their own without manipulation. But I’d still call it a misguided liberal/progressive movement.
I knew I should have never gotten into this. I’d rather talk football.
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I like marching
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mmm-mmm-mmm
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No dog in this hunt, but it has been reported by jason whitlock and others that Concerned Student 1950 is an offshoot of the Black Lives Matter Movement
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I knew they were going to try to stand in school house door
And after their victory, they do a dance
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I heard an NPR interview with a faculty leader at Mizzou yesterday. She mentioned the “murder” of Michael Brown (my quote marks) in Ferguson as being one of the early incidents in the string of persecutions that led to all this. I try to be as open-minded as I can, but I have a problem with acceding to people who obviously are not. The legal system says it was a justified police response. You may or may not agree with that, but to accept blindly the label of “murder” is somehow anti-intellectual to me.
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https://twitter.com/cd_hooks/status/663882854644977664
That will be the third most important debate topic in tonight’s Gut-Spread Round after Thanks Obama! and this Hasty Generalization in which Trump will not only make Baby Hitler kill himself but will also make Germany and Carlos Slim pay for it
https://twitter.com/billmon1/status/663952597313695744
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Yeah, what a bunch of fascists.
They’ve been running a covert drone program targeting civilians in non-war zones for the past 7 years.
If only Obama knew!
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/drones-graphs/
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Hey, I stole that joke yesterday:
“When life gives you conflict, drone it.”
D. Lawson
http://warontherocks.com/2013/09/the-winners-the-american-way-of-war-in-25-words-or-less/
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“Yeah, what a bunch of fascists”
To be fair, that is a correct description of the 2016 Republican goat rodeo krewe
“But,” ¡JEB! THE SMARTEST BUSH® didn’t day, “Hitler’s mom would have to carry the baby to term. No exceptions.”
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Those hateful xenophobes in the GOP!
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Japan only wishes it was droned
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no kidding.
If they had stuck to beheading competitions in Nanking, they’d have never got into that mess
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Bill Connolly has been posting regularly about the hubbub at Mizzou. He’s provided a lot of insight into the atmosphere in CoMo. He points out that, no, Mizzou is not like Bama (or UGA) in the early 60s, but notes that there are still problems.
I thought this post summed up things fairly eloquently.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2015/11/9/9695416/missouri-university-football-tim-wolfe-strike
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Senator, with respect, colleges and universities are the most liberal and left wing places in America. If there are problems there between the liberal administrators, liberal faculty and liberal students the Ben Shapiros of the world had absolutely nothing to do with it.
I’m guessing that was a bit of subconscious deflecting instead of trying to figure out if either the liberal institution is racist to its core or if the liberal students are insane.
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I’m not blaming the problem on Shapiro. I simply noted that he called what the players do a job.
Methinks I’m not the one deflecting here. But judging from how far the tone of comments has diverged from the point of my post, you’re hardly alone in that.
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You can’t be surprised that the tone of comments shifted like it did given the subject, though.
/raises hand in partial responsibility
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I didn’t say I was surprised.
I just don’t want to be included in the group.
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Not trying to spam your remarks. I don’t comment often, so it feels like i’m being overly responsive today.
While I like some of what Shapiro says on some matters, you’re absolutely right on your comment regarding him. If the “it’s their job to play football” school of thought continues and expands, then that’s about the best thing these athletes could hope for. “See!! You say it’s our job to play. Now pay us to play.”
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You’re not spamming. As long as you’re being thoughtful, I don’t have a problem with you expressing your opinion.
As for Shapiro, I found the job comment exactly what you’d expect in that context. My bet is that if the subject of a threatened strike comes up in the context of player compensation, he’ll forget he ever said that.
Not to mention for a guy who’s upset over a strike, he sure seems to call for boycotts a lot. That’s why I called him a hack.
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not a fan of Shapiro… a weenie butt. There are many other writers that make a better argument. Just like there are many on the other side who make a lot more sense than the Sharptons of the world. I prefer to be challenged by those I disagree with and enlightened by those I agree with.
There are clearly some critical thinkers on both sides of the spectrum posting here. Although I think Normaltown is kicking ass.
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I’m thinking we have different definitions of deflecting. The situation is exactly as I described: a liberal administration, liberal faculty and liberal students fighting against each other. In my opinion, including an aside from someone not involved at all in the debate on campus as a way of condemning them is deflecting attention away from the participants and saying “this guy, and those like him are terrible aren’t they?” That is an attempt to shift the attention away from the issues on the UM campus whether it was conscious or not.
Now is my reply to your post deflecting away from the issue at hand? Not consciously. I honestly don’t know enough whether or not the UM campus is so racist that students are willing to starve themselves to death in protest or the students are crazy enough to try. I didn’t address it, because I don’t know enough to condemn either party or both.
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Again, what does any of that have to do with my post? You’re arguing motives, which are irrelevant to the issue I’m raising.
You don’t think you’re doing that consciously?
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Sorry, but the Ben Shapiro swipe just annoyed me. I thought it was irrelevant and unnecessary for your post. I wasn’t really arguing motive since I didn’t know what, if any, motive you had for inserting that.
Just my opinion. Your blog, so I’ll let you have the last word if you rebut.
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The reason I mentioned Shapiro is because that job quote was too irresistible to ignore.
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“the Ben Shapiros of the world”
https://twitter.com/AdamWeinstein/status/663786142106591232
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Force college football from the world of taxpayer subsidies into the free market? It’s a racist/classist/sexist/*ist right wing conspiracy!
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I’d say organized sports at their top levels is a long, long, long way away from a free market. If the salary caps weren’t a give away, ask a Cobb resident how it feels to play for the new Braves stadium (that they didn’t get to vote on.)
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As a Cobb homeowner, I’m less than thrilled to put it lightly.
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Agreed. My point was that using calls for a free market as evidence of racism or classism is suspect, at best.
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Well, I’m glad this is the first of these comment threads I looked at. It’s about what I expected.
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https://twitter.com/bigdangerbaby/status/663777911548219392
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This was sorely mishandled by the players, coach, AD, and President.
Considering recent history, there’s a possibility the swastika was created by a serial complainant instead of some racist hillbilly. Seriously, which of you would grapple a turd to create an image that is primarily viewed as directed at Jews? I did some really stupid things in my time (and have seen many more) but writing with crap is just so far out there. And, I surely wouldn’t use a swastika if I was focusing on black folks. I’m from a southern state – I know how to offend a black man.
I suspect this will get tried a few more times until some administration with a set of balls returns the ultimatum and either tells the kids to straighten up or GTFO. I’m reminded of Reagan and the aircraft controllers union. They went on strike and he fired them. There was little to no after-effect.
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Also,…
http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2015/11/that-time-all-of-auburns-black-athletes-staged-a-walkout-over-mustaches/
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They should smell the fingers of any students they suspect did this act of heinous poop art.
“If the pink don’t stink..you must acquit”
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But see, in the mind of the politically correct, if a leftist stages a hoax racial harassment incident, its ok….because they’re raising awareness, you see….and that’s whats important here.
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“If the fingers don’t stink like $hit, you must acquit!
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I wonder if that residue detector at the airport works on poop.
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The players got the EXACT THING they asked for = “sorely mishandled”
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Oh, and again, it is impossible for them to say GTFO, but you might have missed that part.
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i have 4 kids. quite often they don’t get what they ask for because it isn’t what they need.
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I suspect the swastika was used by the poo artist because of its straight lines and sharp angles. Poo isn’t firm like chalk so it’s difficult create more nuanced designs. My 2 cents.
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I dunno, Ward. Times are changing.
Folks in my neighborhood follow their dogs around and pick up the dog crap with their hands (albeit while the hand is in a shopping bag).
Perhaps it was a dog-lover that used the crap crayon.
BD
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“pick up the dog crap”
That’s when you know the dogs have won
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Our 2 year old twins thought finger painting themselves and the walls with the brown stuff was clever and very amusing. Thus, duct tape on the diapers from then on.
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Now the Chancellor of Mizzou was forced to resign. The body count continues. Like Wolfe, Chancellor Loftin was in the cross hairs of the Social Justice Jihadists at Mizzou, they felt that Loftin should have endorsed the protests over the Michael Brown incident and he cancelled Mizzou’s contract with Planned Parenthood. This is what happens when the Social Justice Jihadis weaponized the politically correct movement..you can be purged for not being leftist enough. And now, they’ve been able to weaponize the football team in their assult on what they perceive as the status quo. And now, the 1950 group is saying they’re going to be issuing even more demands. That is what happens when you give in to this kind of madness. If I had a kid in Missouri, no way in hell would I pay for him to attend that nut house.
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They got a rocket scientist fired. Literally, a rocket scientist.
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The NCAA could expand the roster size and number of annual scholarships. Most of these players want to get to the NFL. Some of them may think twice about walking out if there is someone behind them willing to stay and play. You can’t assume that solidarity will hold up every time.
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I love how everyone acts like this is a new thing. Did no one else see Rudy?
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The only part worth watching is when a shrimp walk-on sacks the QB for Tech.
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I LOL’d at that one.
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I thought the same thing…did they parade into Pinkel’s office and lay their jerseys on the desk?
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Vince Vaughn led that parade.
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So your telling me all it would have taken to get rid of Adams is a Swastipoo?
If UGA loses to Auburn this weekend I am hunger striking, and swastipooing Butts Mehre. Anybody with me?
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I plan on downing a bottle of Milk of Magnesia and recreating the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
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Interesting technique. I could lay down and wave my arms and make a poo angel.
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I think the situation with 1950 illustrates what is so wrong with America today. Instead of two sides coming together, having a constructive conversation, coming to a conclusion that is acceptable for both sides, it deteriorates into finger pointing and alas, blaming the political views of each.
I think this has opened Pandora’s box. Anytime any player of color is offended or cries racism, someone is going to get fired. That’s just awful. Not saying the things that happened weren’t offensive, but bad enough to cause a hunger strike and a Div 1 football team strike? Um, no. I’ve looked and looked for the one offense that is so egregious that it would start this uproar, sorry, I just haven’t found it. Are they going to go on a hunger strike overtime someone hurts their feelings? Really?
It makes me sick to think that there are people, reasonable, intelligent people who pander to this “white privilege” crap. I was and am a single, white mother who raised two kids on her own with very little help from anyone. I’ve worked overtime, every week, for the past 20 years so I could raise my children and give them what most other kids have. My son works two jobs so he can supplement his financial aid and the money I give him to go to UGA. His dream has always been to go the UGA. He works until 4 in the morning 5 days a week and still goes to school full-time. He also mows yards, dog sits and house sits for extra income. He also plays intramural lacrosse. White privilege? Bullshit.
I don’t feel one bit of sympathy for those spoiled brats at Missouri. People want to make this about race. I think you’re right Senator, this is about power, pure and simple. Players have a lot of it. If they start using that power for political purposes, a lot of people will lose interest. Do you think big-time donors are going to contribute big time money to programs who let this sort of thing go on? Let them do what my son does for one or two weeks and they’d shut their damn mouths and be glad with what they have and feel blessed instead of feeling like everyone owes them something. I don’t owe you nothin. It’s bad enough that hard working people have to hear this all the time out in the real world. Now we have to hear it in our recreational world too. Let me tell you people, nothing was EVER handed to me because I was white. Nobody in my family is rich but we’ve all worked hard to have a good life.
I, very respectfully, disagree with demonizing Ben Shapiro. My perception of what he wrote is very different than yours. Not right, just different. My son’s jobs pay for his school. The football players’ job is to play football…to go to school. After all, students attending college is about education, right? The fact that they play football is supposed to be a side story, not THE story. Of course we all know that’s not the case, but that is exactly what Shapiro is trying to say. College football has lost its focus. That is what the article is about.
I am a proud, white conservative, NOT a Republican. I’m a good hard working person who pays their taxes and supports two kids in college, on my own. I love Georgia football to the point of obsession. But if our players push this BLM agenda at UGA, I won’t be a fan any longer. All. Lives. Matter. I come on this blog to read about football, not to be insulted by liberals. One of the things I always loved about this blog is that the dirty world of politics rarely reared it’s ugly head here. I thought the sports arena was one of the few places we could get along, guess not. The GOP is not responsible for the Missouri mess.
I am sorry for the long post, but as a mother of a white male, I’m scared for him. This world today is out to get him and I worry for him and my daughter and all the young people out there. I feel like the other side of the story needs to be told, and it’s just not. I mean no disrespect to anyone reading the post. I am, after all, a mamadawg. Peace.
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Let me say in response first, that criticizing someone isn’t the same thing as demonizing him. Perhaps you can explain your word choice there.
Second, you’ve misconstrued what Shapiro wrote. He didn’t say football and education. He said, “Their only job, after all, is to play football.“ That is a big, big difference and, I think, nullifies the rest of what you have to say about what he wrote.
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I agree, criticize would’ve been better. Football players ONLY job is to play football so they can attend school. Maybe “job” isn’t the right word, they don’t get paid, per se, but they are given a four year education, free of charge, I don’t know. Players don’t have to bag groceries, or deliver pizza, or paint houses, or tend bar to attend college. They practice football, they play football games. That earns them the right to go to UGA free of charge. My perception of the article is different than yours, that’s all. Here’s an excerpt of the article.
“Student athletes on full scholarship now demand to be paid for their skills, piercing the fiction that they’re present for the education. They’re recruited like professionals, complete with hookers and booze; they’re given privileges no other students receive; they’re routinely handed easy course schedules (or allegedly fake schedules), complete with tutors. They get in based on egregiously low scores and GPAs that would make anyone else blush to apply, and then they’re treated like campus kings.”
The whole article is about college football and education. I don’t know why you’re saying it isn’t.
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Because Shapiro – and you! – are saying it’s a job, not an educational opportunity. The schools and the NCAA have been fighting that assessment tooth and nail in all the antitrust cases I’ve mentioned here. If you’re going to say that it’s a job, then it’s hard to see why the players don’t have the right to strike for better conditions, just like any other working stiff in this country.
Which was the point of my post.
Shapiro is a sideshow, meant to illustrate what doesn’t bother ADs about what happened at Missouri. For you to focus on the politics instead of the action itself means you’re not getting what I’m after here.
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Well, you called him a hack? Was that because of his politics or because you didn’t agree with his point?
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or because he is a prison guard?
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You got me here. What does that mean? 🙂
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I’ve never been to prison but in several films I’ve heard the guards called “hacks”.
Remember in Goodfella’s when Henry leaves the bar to go serve his time for beating that guy up (“Jimmy was doing his time in et-LANT-uh”) Tommy yells “say hello to those blowjob hacks!”
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Haha
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“I’ve never been to prison”
scared straight Goodfellas
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Neither. I called him a hack because he’s offended by the idea of a strike even though he regularly calls for boycotts against parties he doesn’t agree with.
I agree with him about the job description, by the way. 😉
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Ahh, gotcha. Thanks.
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Calls for boycott are many splendored things for Ben:
Nabisco because of Sharpton’s Crackers.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/08/ben-shapiro-conservative-activists-shamefully-boycott-nabisco-over-sharpton-ad/
Mozilla because not hetero enough
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2014/04/ben-shapiro-launches-mozilla-boycott.html.
as well as Sharia Financed Projects such as:
The Movie ‘Promised Land.’
Warner Brothers, Universal, and Paramount.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival and The Dubai Film Festival.
Al Jazeera America.
Bank of America.
Major Universities including Harvard, Georgetown, Columbia, University of Arkansas and Berkeley.
Hotel Bel-Air.
The Four Seasons Hotels.
Fairmont Hotels.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2014/05/07/hollywood-boycott-9/
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Okay, I’ll leave you the field. In all my years I’ve learned that religion and politics are two things you never discuss with folks with a viewpoint that is different from yours. Neither side will budge and those conversations get out of control fast.
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My post wasn’t about either.
Unless you consider college football a religion. 😉
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so hard the lulz….
So white privileged is crap, but white persecution is real and something to worry about. It’s crazy how there is just no one out there reporting on the plight of the poor white male. I mean how is a white male supposed to get ahead in this world when all the leaders in the world look just like him.
Gotcha..
again…lulz….so hard the lulz.
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LULZ!
Those Birch society cranks at the New York Times are at it again!
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The funny part is that white privileged is one of the underlying causes of the increase. but thanks for playing.
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Shorter you: the reason suffering white people suffer is b/c of white privilege.
Thanks for defining racism. LULZ!
You’re phunny!
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give some people enough rope….
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“I come on this blog to read about football, not to be insulted by liberals.”
Is it okay to insult Ben Shapiro because I don’t want to live in a world where I can’t insult Ben Shapiro because if you can’t insult Ben Shapiro, who can you insult
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Only a bigot like Shapiro would have a problem with two oppressed young men, who look like Obama’s sons, fighting back against a white oppressor. Wow. Just wow.
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Kudos to your words and deeds Mama.
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So apparently any Mizzou student who feels offended by someone’s speech is to call the on campus police immediately for investigation. Yep… listening to Rush. But I will make one final comment before I head out.
Frank Zappa is turning over in his grave.
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Yeah, but Zappa left it in a neat pile at center stage instead of writing on the walls with it.
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