Mizzou football team issues statement on canceling practice in support of national protests
By SDS Staff
Published:
On Friday, Missouri became the fourth SEC team to cancel practice in solidarity with protests and other sports league boycotts/strikes following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. Kentucky and Mississippi State practices were canceled Thursday while Ole Miss players walked out of practice earlier Friday.
The Tigers football team released a statement via its official Twitter account roughly an hour after beat reporters shared that Friday’s practice was canceled for non-COVID reasons.
The statement reads as follows:
“On today, August 28, 2020 (the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Junior’s I Have a Dream speech), we as the Mizzou Football Team, with the support of our coaches, decided to cancel practice in order to focus on the current state of our country. We desire to use our platform as college student-athletes to shed light on the injustices that are plaguing our country, and to help promote CHANGE! We refuse to ignore racism and police brutality. We are in the process of fostering change within our community by continuously bringing awareness to the importance of every single American, and to implement change in our government, law enforcement (local and state), and youth. In the spirit of Dr. King’s Dream, we will continue developing a comprehensive plan and we will stand side-by-side as brothers from all races, backgrounds, and religions in our relentless pursuit of equity for all.”
The statement was retweeted by the Missouri basketball team and numerous MU student-athletes who included a hashtag #Mizzou4Change.
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