Mizzou football cancels practice, calls for change
The Missouri football has added its voice to the growing number of sports teams that have taken action to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake. The team canceled its football practice scheduled for Friday afternoon "in order to focus on the current state of our country."
The Missouri players released a statement on Twitter that read:
"On today, August 28, 2020 (the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream Speech), we as the Mizzou Football Team, with the support of our coaches, decided to cancel practice in order to focus on the current state of our country. We desire to use our platform as college student-athletes to shed light on the injustices that are plaguing our country, and to help promote CHANGE! We refuse to ignore racism and police brutality. We are In the process of fostering change within our community by continuously bringing awareness to the importance of every single American, and to implement change In our government, law enforcement (local and state) and youth. In the spirit of Dr. King's Dream, we will continue developing a comprehensive plan and we will stand side-by-side as brothers from all races, backgrounds and religions in our relentless pursuit of equality for all."
The statement did not mention Blake by name, but it comes at the end of a week that has seen the sports world rocked by reaction to his shooting. Blake, a Black man, was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday. Blake has been hospitalized since the incident.
In response, the Milwaukee Bucks led NBA players in boycotting Wednesday's playoff games, and the league has not held a game since, although it is expected to resume the playoffs this weekend. The WNBA paused its season, as well, and the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds declined to take the field for their Wednesday night matchup.
Even though the football season hasn't started yet, several NFL and college teams have sought to support the cause by canceling practices. Nine NFL teams declined to take the practice field between Wednesday and Thursday, and the movement trickled down to the college ranks by Thursday. Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Boston College and Baylor were among the teams to cancel practice.
Now, add Missouri to the list. Dozens of Tiger players and coaches tweeted out the team's statement Friday evening. Senior defensive tackles Markell Utsey and Kobie Whiteside apparently took the lead in crafting the statement, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Head coach Eli Drinkwitz has been outspoken against the shooting of Blake this week. He opened his Wednesday post-practice press conference by saying the statement was "not right." He spoke more about the incident Thursday as a guest on the Jim Rome radio show, saying he is "pro-police" but "outraged" by the shooting.
"Just disappointed, extremely disappointed that we're having to address these situations again," Drinkwitz said Wednesday. "But you know, it says in the Good Book, 'Don't grow weary while doing good, for a new time you shall receive your reward. Do not lose heart.' And we’ve got to keep bringing attention, because there is a real problem in the United States of America. Abraham Lincoln said we're striving to become a more perfect union, and we're not there yet. We're not there yet.
"The atrocities that have occurred on videotape in the last three months, it's not right. It's not right. And no matter what justification was used, there was no reason for seven shots to be fired in that situation. And that's my opinion. And I feel for my football team, I feel for our coaches. I was sitting with one of my coaches today while we're seeing it on ESPN, and just the pain of it. We've got to make reform. We've got to address the issues so this does not continue to happen. And I want to be part of the solution. Our football team wants to be part of the solution, we want to bring awareness to the situation. And our prayers are with Jacob, our prayers are with the state of Wisconsin with the situation right now. I support the police, and there's good police officers, but for the situation to occur again, the third time in three months, we’ve got to, as the United States of America, we’ve got to be better.”
Drinkwitz said Wednesday that he had not yet addressed the team about the shooting of Blake, but he planned to. Those conversations evidently happened Friday.
"There needs to be conversations about change," he said, "and everybody's got to open their heart to be have those conversations, me included. You got to open your heart and say, 'What am I missing? What am I missing? What is going on here?' So that's what we're going to do.”
This isn't the first time the Missouri football team has taken action to protest racial inequality during Drinkwitz's brief tenure as head coach. In June, after George Floyd died while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers, several players attended a rally in Jefferson City, then the team organized a march from campus to downtown Columbia to protest Floyd's death. At the conclusion of the march, 62 players registered to vote.
Friday was scheduled to be the eighth of Missouri's 25 fall camp practices before the Tigers open the season Sept. 26 against Alabama. The team was originally scheduled to hold a closed scrimmage Saturday; now, it will move Friday's practice to Saturday and scrimmage on Sunday, according to a team spokesperson.