Inside Mizzou's march for justice
By the time Missouri’s football team held a time-wide virtual meeting Wednesday afternoon, head coach Eliah Drinkwitz said his players weren’t asking for permission. It had been nine days since George Floyd died while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers, sparking protests coast-to-coast about police brutality and racial injustice. Led by sophomore safety Martez Manuel, the Tiger football team planned to join the demonstrations.
“Our players were not asking for permission,” Drinkwitz said. “They were seeking for support, for right versus wrong.”
Drinkwitz and his assistants obliged. A group of student-athletes comprised mostly of football players marched Wednesday afternoon from the iconic columns on Missouri’s campus to the Boone County Courthouse. There, the participants paused and knelt in silence for 8 minutes, 46 seconds — the length of time police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on a handcuffed Floyd’s neck, resulting in his death. At the conclusion of the march, 62 student-athletes registered to vote.
In a virtual press conference with local reporters Thursday, Drinkwitz described the march as a way to “put action behind our words” and “fight for justice.” He called it a powerful experience that changed him and brought the Missouri team closer together.
“This was a clear instance of right versus wrong, and we tell our players and we tell people that when something is wrong, stand up against it,” Drinkwitz said. “And what happened to George Floyd was wrong, and we stand against that, and we fight for justice, and that’s as clear as we can be about it.”
Drinkwitz said he and the Missouri staff first started having individual conversations with players about Floyd’s death on May 28. Players expressed enough passion that, the following day, Drinkwitz called an “impromptu team meeting” over Zoom. The players and coaches continued to discuss racial issues among position groups. Senior defensive end Chris Turner called the conversations “extremely positive.” At some point over the weekend, Drinkwitz first heard from a player seeking to get involved in the protests.
Junior linebacker Nick Bolton said Manuel, a Columbia native, formulated the plan to march as a team. Once Manuel started to share his plan with teammates and coaches, support was nearly unanimous, and it came together quickly. Drinkwitz said the team agreed during a 1 p.m. meeting Wednesday that it would start the march at 2.
“I didn't really 100 percent expect everybody to be 100 percent bought in, but Martez had the idea of the march going from the columns to downtown, and quickly after that everybody else bought into it,” Bolton said. “We had 60-plus guys, and nearly everybody that’s back in town attended the walk from the columns to downtown.”
Drinkwitz said several volunteers from both the University of Missouri and Columbia police departments joined the march. Men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin, who has been outspoken about racial injustice the past few days, participated as well.
Drinkwitz credited running backs coach Curtis Luper, who he called a “student of history” for emphasizing registering to vote as a way players could help make a difference. He stressed that the team didn’t ask or pressure players about which party they would vote for.
“It wasn't about tearing stuff down or trying to create any type of violence or anything like that, but it was about how do we create positive change through utilizing our voice?” Drinkwitz said. “Instead of complaining, do something. And that’s the way to do it, with voting.”
Bolton said he had registered to vote in the past, but he did so again, “just to be safe.” Turner was already registered, but he called watching so many teammates join the democratic process for the first time “powerful.”
“I was proud of them, I was proud of the people around us for giving us the opportunity to do this,” Turner said. “Because at the end of the day, that’s where the change really happens, it’s in politics.”
Both the state of Missouri and its flagship university have had thorny racial histories, with the most recent on-campus unrest coming in 2015. A group of football players joined protests against on-campus racism, threatening to sit out games unless UM System President Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin resigned. Both did so within a few days, but the team’s involvement generated blowback from both fans and legislators.
Wednesday’s march seems to have been greeted much more positively. Drinkwitz distanced the actions from the events of 2015, noting that none of the players currently on Missouri’s roster were here five years ago and part of the "New Zou" slogan he has repeated since landing the job was leaving the past behind. He said the march was about “our moment in time right now” and also said it was not meant to be a political stand.
“This is not a political statement, this is an equal rights statement, a human rights statement,” he said. “What happened to George Floyd was wrong, and we call it out for what it was, which is wrong.” Later, he said "It's not an us versus them. It's everybody versus racism."
Now that the march is over, Drinkwitz still wants his team to be involved in pursuing racial equity. He declined to reveal specific details of how it might do so, but he mentioned community service, creating better internship and job opportunities for players and pushing all players to pursue meaningful degrees and important emphases.
Turner said participating in the march and having conversations with his coaches and teammates helped him realize the power of his platform. He plans to use his voice to seek continued reform and hopes his teammates will do the same.
“We have a platform, guys can use their voice,” Turner said. “I talked to Dr. (Brian) Brown about it yesterday, about what I can do and what changes I can make in my community, and he told me to start my voice. So I’m hoping more guys step up, more guys use their voice and their platform to push this change.”