Here is Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post today:
Too often college athletes wind up in the news for reasons other than how they played—and not in a good way. But we can thank black players on the University of Missouri football team for giving us some off-field action to cheer about.
I’ve read at least a dozen versions of this sentiment, and I’d like to suggest that everyone reflect on this a bit before buying into it. A bunch of football players announced they’d no longer play until the university president resigned. After two months of inaction over accusations of racism on campus, he resigned almost immediately.
So, sure, good for them. But are we really happy that college football players apparently have this much power? Do we want to encourage it? We might all want to give this a bit of thought before we start cheering too hard.
