Fournette not afraid to speak his mind

It’s like a rock star delivering a political message in the middle of the show. While it’s probably not what most people paid $75 to hear, why not use that platform to express your views?

There isn’t a bigger rock star in the SEC than LSU Heisman Trophy hopeful Leonard Fournette, and he had something on his and a lot of players’ minds. So there was never a question about whether or not to “stick to sports.”

“I figure, I have a voice, in the city where I’m from, especially in Louisiana. My whole meaning towards that, was just pray until change comes,” Fournette said Thursday at SEC Media Days. “That’s not just in (Baton Rouge), but that’s everywhere in the world.”

Fournette posted a picture of himself on social media last week, clad in a T-shirt with the face of Alton Sterling on it. The shooting of Sterling in Baton Rouge triggered another wave of protests -- and sadly, more shootings – across the country.

Fournette resides in Baton Rouge and is from New Orleans. His story of living on an interstate bridge with his family after Hurricane Katrina shaped his growth into what Sports Illustrated calls college football’s best player.

He knows suffering and devastation, and his message about Sterling was intended to help heal. Fournette wasn’t going to ignore it, and the same man who auctioned off his jersey for $101,000 and donated all of it to flood victims in South Carolina last year was going to use his celebrity to an advantage.

Not his. The planet’s.

“It’s always good to send a message, and not just that incident, but any good thing you can do to help the world become a better world, better place,” he said. “All have to do that.”

Each SEC coach talked about meeting with their teams over the last week to discuss their feelings on the shootings and racial protests. Perhaps they would have done it anyway, perhaps they were spurred to do it by the Missouri football team’s stand last season, but all knew that times have changed.

College athletes are also college kids. It’s the time in life where views and opinions are shaped. Having a star such as Fournette unafraid to speak his mind has led others to do the same.

“I don’t know that I personally have processed the emotion that I see when I -- when our country is displayed as it is,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “What I’d like to do is have them, our guys, have a platform where they could affect change. I think they’re wonderful men. I think they’re constantly involved in roles -- they’re a student, they’re a football player, they’re role models. Society chases them.”

Fournette liked that as much as he likes the idea of defenders chasing him toward the end zone. Miles called for a team meeting after the Sterling shooting, not dictating what players should or should not do but allowing anyone who wanted to express what they thought.

“I think coach Miles did a great job by bringing us together, just talking about it, getting the mixed emotions and feelings out there and he’s trying to understand how the players felt about it,” Fournette said.

Everybody was trying to understand reasons for last week. Fournette didn’t claim to know the answers, but was more than willing to say it was OK to speak up.