Marvin Wilson says FSU coach lied about talking to players about George Floyd death
The caption of the Florida State Seminoles football team says he is 'outraged' and that the team will not report to workouts but a closed-door meeting may have eased tensions.
College football has been in a quandary ever since protests began after the death of George Floyd. The biggest college football conferences and their teams are staunchly conservative. Their athletes weren’t as involved in NFL anthem protests, though they may have supported them privately.
READ MORE: Saints’ Drew Brees blasted after saying he’ll never agree to anthem protests
In that climate, sports insiders wondered how college coaches would handle the Floyd protests.
Not so well, it seems. As reported by ESPN, Marvin Wilson, the team captain of the Florida Seminoles football team tweeted yesterday that the team’s new coach, Mike Norvell, had not reached out to his players personally as he said he’d done in an interview with The Athletic.
“We got a generated text that was sent to everybody,” Wilson said on Twitter. “There was no one on one talk between us an coach. This is a lie and me and my teammates as a whole are outraged and we will not be working out until further notice.”
Man this ? did not happen mane. We got a generated text that was sent to everybody. There was no one on one talk between us and coach. This is a lie and me and my teammates as a whole are outraged and we will not be working out until further notice ? #hunchoout https://t.co/6Uuy6K7Eu3
— HEAD HUNCHO? (@marvinwilson21) June 4, 2020
Wilson, a 6’5, 310-pound defensive tackle is a Houston native, same as Floyd. He didn’t enter the NFL draft so he could play his senior season at FSU. Norvell, the former coach of the Memphis Tigers, took them to a berth in the Cotton Bowl in his four-year tenure there. This is his first year as Seminoles coach.
In the Athletic, Norvell said that the team had had an “open communication” with its players.
“And that was something that was important to me because this is a heartbreaking time in our country,” Norvell said. “You see hate and you see discrimination. You see some of the acts that have occurred. I mean, it’s a problem. And it’s something that we have to stand together and we have to work to get it fixed.”
The team has since held a closed-door meeting with Norvell.
“I want to tell you that Coach just finished a closed team meeting with the football team,” A.D. David Coburn to FSU Board of Trustees told Warchant.com. “I’m told that the dialogue was open and very candid and that it went well. So I believe we’re moving on there.”
One of the only major protests that have happened in college football was at The University of Missouri.
READ MORE: Ex- NFL exec admits Colin Kaepernick’s career ended because of activism
Tensions spilled over on the campus after the protests in Ferguson following the police shooting death of Michael Brown. Black players on The University of Missouri football team united behind calls on campus to institute change and said they’d refuse to play. Ultimately, the president was ousted and other changes were made on the 25,000-plus student campus.
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