COLUMBIA, Mo. — Yesterday’s march in Columbia was a call to action for change.
Following the march, more than 60 football players registered to vote.
“I kind of thought to myself one night, ‘What took so long for people to finally say, “Hey like, this is wrong. It shouldn’t be happening”?'” Mizzou defensive lineman Chris Turner said.
Turner is wondering the same thing many are questioning: Why now? Why did jumping into action to protest police brutality, racial inequality and the deaths of countless black people happen now?
At Mizzou, the athletic program said they are now focused on being part of the change.
“Change doesn’t happen if you don’t express yourself,” linebacker Nick Bolton said. “I feel like as a team, as a unit, as a whole as Missouri Tigers… this brought us closer together.”
“This is a clear instance of right versus wrong,” new head coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “We tell our players, we tell people that when something is wrong, to stand up against it.”
Coach Drinkwitz took his team’s wishes for change to heart, leading a player-organized peaceful walk from the campus to the county courthouse.
“It’s an important issue for all of us,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s not an us-versus-them. It’s all of us versus racism. And so, this is not a situation where it’s a them-thing. It’s an us-thing.
During the walk the players took a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and locked arms.
“It was about taking our words and our statements and applying actions, and that is integrity,” Drinkwitz said.
He also said they are forming action plans for going forward. Those plans have not been detailed.
