Our View: Missouri football players in the right
Due to an influx of racially-charged incidents at the University of Missouri, 30 black football players publicly backed the resignation of University President Tim Wolfe, citing his inaction to stop these incidents as inexcusable.
This announcement was made via the Legion of Black Collegians and came in the form of a tweet.
Wolfe hasn’t resigned and later said the administration would be taking initiative to prevent actions, which reportedly included racial slurs frequently being used by students and a swastika drawn on someone’s door in feces.
What’s most notable about the players’ support however, is that they’re saying they’ll sit out games to make their point.
It appears as though nobody understands the power behind this statement better than the Tigers’ head coach Gary Pinkel, who played on the Kent State football team around the time of the May 4 shooting.
Pinkel could’ve easily decided to say he was staying out of these players’ affairs and next to nobody would’ve blamed him, but he tweeted Sunday that “The Mizzou Family stands as one. We are united. We are behind our players.” The tweet included the hashtag #ConcernedStudent1950, the rallying cry behind the movement, and a photograph of the entire team locking arms together.
We applaud the Tigers’ movement and can only say that if anything similar was happening at Kent State, the student athletes here would explore taking similar actions.
We thank them wholeheartedly for using their voice in the university and the media in general, as without their decision to protest, the horrible issues at Missouri would’ve gone mostly unrecognized on a national scale. These men understand the magnitude their position as football players carries and serve as great ambassadors for not only the game, but integrity itself.
The above editorial is a consensus opinion of The Kent Stater editorial board, whose names are listed above.