College Football Landscape: Will your coach speak up?

NEW ORLEANS, LA – JANUARY 13: Head coach Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers embraces Isaiah Simmons #11 during the College Football Playoff National Championship held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 13, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Justin Tafoya/Getty Images)

With a country fighting to be united, we turn our eyes to the leaders of college football to help in the fight of equality.

Sports are needed now more than ever as our country is in shambles over racial injustice. Sports are the unifying place where we can all come together for a few hours and have a common goal for our favorite teams. Sports hold a big platform in itself but college football is in a league of its own when it comes to capturing the hearts of America. College football is a sport that basically plays with house money because it will always get its viewers in the end. So why are we not hearing the voices of those in authoritative positions in college football speak?

College football mainly consist of teams that are predominantly African American men who are led by a white head coach. This piece is not here to shout modern day slavery, this piece is here for college coaches to finally pay up on their promises. These coaches every year go into the homes of young African American men and promise their parents that their child will leave the university as a better man in four or five years.

These coaches often times find themselves going into neighborhoods they would never touch and see the poverty a lot of these kids come from whether it be white or black. Driving into these neighborhoods to offer a kid the opportunity to change the next generation of his family. Are these coaches talking about changing their generations with hopes of them going to the NFL or promising this kid change because he will leave the university as a man who can contribute to society?

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College coaches have a chance to prove that these young men they coach are more than just an opportunity to hoist a trophy at the end of the season. If you won’t pay them because you claim they already receive more than enough then show us their true worth by standing beside them in this fight against racial injustice. You’ve seen where every young man on your roster comes from so you’re just as much of the problem if you choose not to speak out for them.

You see daily how a group of young white and black men can truly come together as a family that lasts well behind their years on the field. If your job as a college football coach is more important than developing change that will contribute to society then you don’t deserve a position of power.

We live in a system that tells those it wasn’t intended to protect that they should feel safe despite them losing their brothers and sisters to those who are placed in authority to guard their lives. Justice in America has shown that it is intended to protect those who can afford a good lawyer to receive their justice.

It has shown us that the system was protected to protect the white-collar crimes of this world more than it is intended to protect those who need protection from true hate crimes. Cops are killing black men in the streets for no reason, and those same black men could be a relative of someone on your roster yet you choose not to speak. Instead you yearn for another season where you can reap the benefits of what these young men bring to your program on the field.

College football coaches have one of the biggest platforms while also having the chance to make the biggest impact. You are in contact everyday with young men from different demographics so you can’t pretend that you don’t see that there are two different Americans. The America who has a voice because the system was suited to fit their privilege.

While others come from the America that is forced into silence because their voices for peace supposedly make them a threat to society. All these kids right now are taking notice of what coaches are speaking and so are their parents. The eyes of the world have turned to you for help because your platform is one that we all gravitate towards.

College football coaches across America are in the heart of the two Americas because they constantly have to cross into both sides. You see the injustice, you see the poverty , and you see the lack of true equal opportunity. Your eyes have seen the truth and we all know it. The ball is now in your corner, will you speak?