Gamecocks football will take Monday off for a team demonstration for racial justice
South Carolina’s football team has marched for social justice once this offseason. They’ll do it again this week.
Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said the team will not have team activities Monday, but will be part of the day at an on-campus demonstration.
“We will have COVID testing Monday morning and we will go to campus and (have) a team demonstration,” Muschamp told reporters Saturday. “Obviously you’ve seen the video, the Jacob Blake situation in Wisconsin is a horrific situation. A team demonstration supporting racial equality and being totally against police brutality, our leadership group came to me on that. We want to make a statement on our campus. We’re going to do that. (I) think some other student athletes will join us, hopefully.”
He said it would remove football and put the focus “a little bit on more important things in our life and in our country right now.”
On Friday, Gamecocks women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley also spoke up about issues of social justice in America.
The shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin ignited protests or marches across the United States, including in downtown Columbia both Friday and Saturday. They also brought a multiple-day delay in the NBA season, plus delays in hockey and baseball as players stepped away from their courts and fields to highlight the issue.
The Gamecocks marched back in June after the death of George Floyd. More than 100 players and several coaches came out as part of a demonstration, first at the governor’s mansion and then marching over to the State House.
Asked about reports that might have potentially justified the shooting of Blake, who was shot seven times in the back and had his spine severed by a bullet, Muschamp was short and to the point about what he saw.
“All I can tell you is what I saw on video; it wasn’t right in my opinion,” Muschamp said. “It wasn’t right in our players’ opinion and I’m gonna stand up for that.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 2:18 PM.
