Athletes and Coaches Around the NCAA Are Getting Involved in the National Conversation of Racial Injustice

SI's Pat Forde shares how people in college athletics are getting involved in the national conversation

After the death of George Floyd, protests against racial injustice and police brutality have been happening around the country. College athletes around the NCAA have been getting involved in a multitude of ways. 52 athletes from the University of Missouri marched through campus on to downtown where they all registered to vote. 

Video Transcript:

Pat Forde: If there's one good thing that's come out of the pretty awful events of the last week from a college athletics perspective, it's been an awakening of awareness and the power that's in the hands of the college athletes themselves. We've seen some very interesting things take place over the last couple of days here. University of Missouri, the athletes marched through campus and went on downtown and all registered to vote. 52 new voters put their names into the registry for November elections. 

Georgia Tech put out an announcement that said their teams are not going to practice on Election Day in November because they're going to vote instead. I think you're gonna see other schools going in that direction as well. 

Then at Florida State overnight as it's an interesting story there, where Mike Norvell, the new head football coach; was quoted in a story of saying that he met individually with every player to talk about race relations, racism, police brutality, and then he was called out by one of his players. The team captain said that's not the case, that there was a group text that was sent out and there were not individual meetings. He said that the Florida state players would not work out for the time being. So we're seeing players that are getting a real good grasp on events that affect them. Big picture events beyond just playing football or basketball or whatever their sport may be. And they're realizing the kind of power that they have at their hands and they're utilizing it.