Quote:
Originally Posted by tarcone
Our all time leading receiver speaks out. It is a mess at Iowa.
Going to be a long Summer.
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If it's any consolation, I expect that Iowa is far from along in terms of these kinds of problems. They're taking the brunt of it publicly, but I would bet good money there are similar issues at other programs. Maybe at some it's more about a sadistic kind of attitude in the S&C program, at others maybe it's more about a "culture" that doesn't seem to allow much room for black kids to act a certain way, but I think we're going to see a wave of similar accusations coming out in the next few months and years.
We know that strength & conditioning programs can be run in ways that push kids extremely hard without putting them at such risk of damage to their health and without demeaning them as people as a means of motivation.
And we know that black players are less and less willing to stay silent about program cultures that are at best not welcoming of certain aspects of the cultures those kids come from, and at worst are racist. This is an area that's going to be really tough to navigate, because it's a gray area where it's hard to say that it's necessarily outright racism, and some folks are going to defend the right of a coach to establish certain ground rules for the culture within their programs.
But when those cultures are ones that skew heavily against expressions, appearances and attitudes that are found predominantly among black players, it's hard not to view those cultures as being prejudiced.
This is not a view that old school folks are going to care for. There will be those that say that players should shut up and listen to their coaches, and if they don't like it, leave. But that's not the world we live in anymore. Kids - especially college football players in this day and age with this level of exposure and this much money at stake in the sport - are exerting their rights to express themselves and be themselves. And whether old-school attitudes
should continue to exist is going to become more and more a moot point, because the programs that succeed while letting their kids be themselves (or at least grant a lot more freedom in that regard) are going to win more and more recruiting battles against the old school programs.