You may recall that last month, several football players at the University of Missouri threatened to boycott all team activities unless university system president Tim Wolfe resigned for his inadequate response to several racially-charged incidents on campus. Within 48 hours of that announcement, Wolfe stepped down. Well, that doesn’t sit well with a pair of Republican state representatives. In what they openly admit is a swipe at the players, they have proposed a bill that would yank the scholarship of any student-athlete in Missouri who follows the Tigers’ example.
State Representatives Rick Brattin and Kurt Bahr have introduced a bill that would cancel the scholarship of any healthy student-athlete at a public or private university in Missouri who “calls, incites, supports, or participates in any strike or concerted refusal” to suit up for a game. It also states that any coach who “encourages or enables” such action will be fined by their institution. The latter provision is a swipe at retiring Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel, whose support for his players proved to be the final nail in Wolfe’s coffin.
Brattin, from the Kansas City suburb of Harrisonville, makes no bones about why he drafted this bill. He told CBS Sports that it is “absolutely” in response to the “anarchy” that took place at MU last month. Brattin said that school officials shouldn’t have knuckled under to the players’ “completely horrific” threat to sit out their game against BYU unless Wolfe resigned. He also blasted Pinkel for giving his “anointed blessing” to the players. Bahr, from the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon, agrees, saying that the protest revealed “a discussion needs to be had.”
However, Brattin lost all credibility when he denied that there was a racial problem on the Columbia campus. Brattin must have a funny definition of “racial problem.” School officials dragged their feet in responding to a number of incidents of racially-charged harassment in Columbia–including the student body president being the target of racial slurs and a swastika being scrawled in a dorm bedroom. Is Brattin seriously telling players they should have just shut up and play under such conditions, when the university they represent is being so pigheaded? If he is, his priorities are severely warped. Senior safety Ian Simon, one of the leaders of the boycott, agrees. In a statement, he said that Brattin forgets that football is only “a small part of who we are.”
There’s another problem with Brattin’s bill. If I’m reading this bill correctly, Brattin is telling student-athletes in Missouri that if a coach shows gross disregard for their safety, they should just shut up and play. For instance, if a coach leaves a player in a game despite signs of a concussion and the other players find out about it, what would you expect the players to do if no one on the coaching staff or university administration is willing to listen? No one with even an iota of decency would expect players at any university to continue to play under those conditions.
Brattin’s bill is due to be considered when the legislature reconvenes in January. I realize that Missouri has turned an almost unrecognizable shade of red lately. But I’d like to think this bill would be far too much even for this legislature. This blatant swipe at free expression should be killed, and killed quickly.
