Mandel: College football’s moment of racial reckoning has arrived

[BleedGopher]

per Mandel:


Two weeks ago, the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer touched off a nationwide movement. What started as protests against police brutality quickly morphed into a larger uprising against all forms of racism. Black Americans are urging non-black Americans to listen, and increasingly, the latter are joining them in marches through their respective cities.

So it’s no surprise that larger movement has reached college football, a sport where the majority of the players are black. For some in power, Black Lives Matter has served as an awakening.

For others, it’s been a reckoning.

In the span of a week, we’ve heard allegations of racist behavior by coaches at Clemson (special teams coordinator Danny Pearman), Utah (defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley) and Iowa (strength coach Chris Doyle and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz). All came from former players, free of the repercussions current players may fear by speaking out against the powerful figures that hold their football careers in their hands.

Their stories get to the heart of the sport’s massively imbalanced power structure. And they illustrate the complexities of relationships where a black player may well be grateful to a coach for pushing him to reach his potential while also uncomfortable with the language they use to do it.

Mandel: College football’s moment of racial reckoning has arrived

Former players speaking out about their experiences has gotten to the heart of the sport’s massively imbalanced power structure.

theathletic.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[A nonymous]

“Massively imbalanced power structure”
Are they really referring to the team structure of coaches and players? I don’t refute that there are examples of racist coaches out there, but to say that those examples are evidence for an imbalanced power structure is pretty naive. Not sure if that author ever actually played sports but with statements like that, sure seems like they didn’t.

 

[fmlizard]

“Massively imbalanced power structure”
Are they really referring to the team structure of coaches and players? I don’t refute that there are examples of racist coaches out there, but to say that those examples are evidence for an imbalanced power structure is pretty naive. Not sure if that author ever actually played sports but with statements like that, sure seems like they didn’t.

The massively imbalanced power structure of college athletics has much more to do with elders having power (money) over the young than it does matters of race

 

[Herd]

College football is a positive, a beacon with regard to race relations when compared to society as a whole.

When team trumps the individual as it does in a pure college FB environment, race is relatively unimportant behind character, dedication and commitment. The politics and lack of integrity that erode society around race are not allowed to exist on a healthy college football team.