Mizzou Football Players Take A Stand

Members of Missouri Tigers football team will not play until university president steps down.

Mizzou football players made a statement, and the message is clear. Members of the football team will apparently stop participating in all football related activities until university system president Tim Wolfe is gone,  according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Dave Matter.

Practice, film, meetings, media…it appears at least a group of Mizzou football players are done with it all until Wolfe is out of office. Wolfe is accused of being “inadequate” and “does not understand systems of oppression, yet claims to care about Black students,” in a petition on Change.org.

Here’s the tweet from the Legion of Black Collegians Twitter account that seemed to break the news yesterday evening:

One day after losing 31-13 to the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Faurot Field, this is a powerful message from some of the most recognizable students on the University’s campus. And they have every right to assert themselves. Whether you agree with their stance or not, these are young men showing they’re willing to risk a lot more than next week’s matchup versus BYU.

This is longer about football; this is about the Mizzou family. It’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s certainly respectable if they go about it the right way.

According to Matter, the Mizzou players have the support of their coaching staff:

"Several players have tweeted about the protest Saturday, including cornerbacks John Gibson and Finis Stribling, safetis Thomas Wilson and Anthony Sherrils and linebacker Clarence Green. In response to another tweet, Gibson wrote, “has nothing to do with our coaches. Our coaches are 100% behind us. Including the white ones”"

It’s been reported that racial tension at Mizzou has been rising as of late, and according to Emma Vandelinder of The Columbia Missourian, the racial climate has been tumultuous for months. Vandelinder outlines several of the notable incidents over the past eight weeks, and with those in mind, it’s no wonder it’s come to this for Mizzou football.

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Wolfe grew up in Columbia, he went to the University of Missouri-Columbia and joined the university staff in 2012. (UMSystem.edu)

He’s on the hot seat now, though, and it doesn’t appear he has anywhere to hide. I won’t pretend to know Wolfe personally or professionally, but I do know that he’s got some tough decisions to make in the next, oh, 24 hours or so.

An estimated 60 of the 124 Mizzou football players are black, but it’s still unclear exactly which players have agreed to go on strike and exactly what each player’s role is in this situation.

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It’s a sticky situation altogether and one that could become contentious if it drags on. As someone who is not familiar with the case and who has nothing more than an outsider’s view, this might be enough for Wolfe to step down, and soon. If he can weather the storm and somehow make amends here, maybe he can right the ship. But it appears the damage is done.