Monday afternoon, all-Big 12 Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard tweeted his displeasure at a photograph of head coach Mullet “I’m a man, I’m 40!” Gundy wearing a t-shirt bearing the logo of One America News, a fledgling right-wing media enterprise which Gundy had praised earlier this year.
Since this is America, and freedom of speech is a right protected by the Constitution, The Mullet can get his “news” from any source he wants. But Hubbard is also allowed to speak out about how it feels to be a young black man playing for a coach who endorses an outlet that has, among other incendiary takes, referred to Black Lives Matter as “a farce.” It wasn’t long before other OSU players took to social media in support of Hubbard, and later that same day Gundy and Hubbard appeared in what looked like a hostage video, during which Hubbard actually apologized for tweeting out his feelings.
A day later, predictably, Gundy read a mea culpa designed to demonstrate his newfound appreciation for his players’ concerns. His delivery was as wooden as Roger Dorn’s during the Cleveland team’s American Express commercial in “Major League” and was received well by some. Others weren’t so convinced. Of course, believing that The Mullet had actually changed his feelings after one 24-hour period is simplistic at best and dangerous at worst. This was the guy who back in April said he would be bringing his players back soon to campus, despite the burgeoning pandemic, because he didn’t want to stop the flow of dollars from university or state.
The issue here isn’t whether Gundy should be fired for his political beliefs or news channel choices. He shouldn’t be. (NOTE: If the accusations made by former Colorado players that The Mullet used the N-word in a 1989 game between Oklahoma State and the Buffaloes are true, then it’s time for him to go.) The larger question is whether Hubbard’s and his teammates’ posts signal a new dawn in athletes’ activism. As college sports stumble back to life in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, protests continue across the country in response to police brutality and institutional racism, and the NC2A continues to do everything in its power to limit the rights of its athletes in the name of “amateurism”, athletes everywhere are becoming emboldened and could well create a long-needed shift in the power dynamic across the nation.
Ohio State students were welcomed back to campus this week with a form they had to sign that absolved the institution of any liability should any of them contract coronavirus during their “voluntary” workouts. Athletes at other schools will no doubt have to do the same thing when they arrive on campus. All this to make sure the institutions are protected, even if the kids aren’t.
As we move forward while confronting the dueling crises of a pandemic (better get your fill of college sports early in the fall, folks) and substantial civil unrest, athletes and their families should be paying close attention to what schools do to assure students’ safety, how they respond for calls to repair racist activities of the past and present and whether they respond enthusiastically to the opportunity to help athletes profit from their names, images and likenesses. Those who do will be able to make informed decisions about remaining on campus and where they should be committing when recruited.
In the past, athletes have chosen their schools based on playing time, facilities, academic programs, coaches’ sales pitches, location, historic success and a host of other criteria, some of which are quite banal. “Golly, Mom and Dad, Clemson’s football building has a sliding board in it. I want to go there!” While some of the reasons will always remain crucial to the final decisions, the behaviors of people and schools during these extraordinary times should offer significant evidence of where players – particularly African-Americans – want to spend four years (or at least one or two before they transfer).
Players and their families should start paying closer attention to what coaches believe, what institutions celebrate and whether those behaviors align with their beliefs and what is important to them. If Gundy still wants to watch OAN, that’s his right. But that might be a problem if he wants to convince a four-star African-American quarterback to play for him. If a school wants to become a magnet for players who want some of rights and privileges enjoyed by their coaches – bonuses for success, ability to profit in the community from their exploits and relative freedom of movement between job opportunities – then its president had better not be chairing a committee of fellow big shots who are trying to squelch athletes’ freedoms.
If athletes want to affect change at schools and within athletic departments, they can do so by choosing colleges whose officials and coaches care about social justice, rather than just issuing mea culpas when they get caught doing things that upset people. Further, parents, community leaders and others who have influence over young people should be monitoring the those competing for high school athletes’ services. That way, they can provide information and guidance about who is recruiting the youngsters. Nothing forces change in college sports more than poor performances by teams, diminishing revenues and bad public relations. Yes, Clemson may have a beach volleyball court at its football complex. But it also has a building on campus named for Benjamin Tillman, an ardent racist. It’s time to make one of those facts more important than the other when it comes to athletic recruiting.
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EL HOMBRE SEZ: It took espn 1:45 of “Long Gone Summer” to mention that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa might have used some funny vitamins to jack all those homers during the magical steroid summer of ’98. Who makes the decisions to gloss over things like this? Is there a big meeting in which someone says, “Look, these guys looked like Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade floats, but if we talk about their go-go juice usage, folks won’t watch,” and everybody just goes along? It’s ridiculous and yet another reason espn can’t be counted on consistently for truthful programming…Speaking of baseball, it looks like we might have an agreement between players and owners that will allow for a truncated 2020 season. Might. It’s still extremely possible that both sides will screw this up, and that the only ball we’ll see is the Korean League, or the 96th airing of “Bull Durham.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)…Among the amenities promised NBA players when they bivouac at the “bubble” in Mousetown for the remainder of the ’19-20 season is a manicure/pedicure service. El Hombre is trying to imagine what Bill Russell, Wes Unseld, Maurice Lucas or Bill Laimbeer would have had to say about that.
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YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT? News of Eagles guard Barrett Brooks’ torn Achilles tendon has rattled the franchise and its fan base. Now, the team must decide whether to promote a reserve from within to take Brooks’ place, pursue the unwise path of re-signing Jason Peters to play inside, after his glittering career as a left tackle, pick up a cheap free agent or get aggressive and find a front-line replacement. El Hombre votes for the aggressive approach. Although the team is way over the cap for the 2021 season, thanks to a spate of long-term deals, and inking (or trading for) a legitimate starter would stress an already difficult money situation, the team has a great chance to win the NFC East this year and merely patching a major hole in the middle of the line will have significant consequences. Oft-injured QB Carson Wentz needs as much protection as possible, and leaving him vulnerable to A-gap blitzes isn’t the best way to do that. Further, since the Eagles’ receiving corps isn’t made up of 7-Eleven types (always open), Wentz will need more time to find someone who has – perhaps – shaken free of a defender. Putting a turnstile in front of him on the line won’t aid his efforts any. It makes sense to overpay for Brooks’ replacement for this year and perhaps next, since this is his second torn Achilles, and though he showed superhuman courage in coming back so quickly from the first, the body can only withstand so much abuse. NFL teams have no guarantee that contention windows will stay open for more than a year, much less three or four, and sacrificing 2020 for the future is a bad decision.
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AND ANOTHER THING: As the nation opens up gradually – or, in some places, too quickly – people are beginning to look a bit forward to the idea that college football will defy the pandemic and provide us three months of Saturday entertainment. That’s a nice thought, but it would be wise for fans to temper their expectations. As colleges across the country try to figure out how to return to campus, they are also making plans for a return to the remote educational models that prevailed earlier this year, as states shut down activities, and toilet paper hoarding became the new national pastime. With experts predicting sustained life for the coronavirus, and states experiencing spikes in cases thanks to premature loosening of restrictions, the chances of another widespread national crisis are quite real. Although some states may ignore a growing number of cases and power forward, others won’t. That means campus closures and cessations of college sports. It’s not guaranteed, and it’s not necessarily universal, but everyone should understand that there could well be interruptions as the fall moves forward.
-EH-
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