College Football Players Unite in an Effort/Union to Save Their Season:”We All Want To Play Football This Season”(The Players have a ‘Plan to Play’)

**********Under the logos of each Power Five conference — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — the college players have pronounced their platform:

—We all want to play football this season.**********

from Ralph D. Russo, by way of Wavy.com….. CLICK HERE to see entire article/post with photo, and to Read On with Ralph.

Michigan defensive back Hunter Reynolds saw the tweets from Trevor Lawrence and other college football players, pushing for the opportunity to play this season, despite the pandemic.

Reynolds, one of the organizers behind a players’ rights movement in the Big Ten, didn’t like the way some on social media seemed to be pitting Lawrence’s message against the efforts of #BigTenUnited and #WeAreUnited.

“There was a lot of division,” Reynolds told AP early Monday morning.

Reynolds got on a call with Lawrence and the star quarterback’s Clemson teammate, Darien Rencher, and within a matter of hours the summer of athlete empowerment found another gear.

++++++++++College football players from across the country united Sunday in an attempt to save their season and ensure they will no longer be left out of the sport’s biggest decisions.++++++++++

Lawrence, Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, Oklahoma State All-America running back Chuba Hubbard, Alabama running back Najee Harris and numerous other players from Florida State to Oregon posted a graphic on social media with #WeWantToPlay and #WeAreUnited.

“We came to the conclusion, We Want to Play, their message might have been conveyed differently but at the end of the day the message wasn’t too far off from what Big Ten United wanted to promote,” Reynolds said. “Which is we all want to play sports this fall. Every athlete, I’m pretty sure, wants to play their sports. They just want to do so safely.”

The #WeAreUnited hashtag was used a week ago by a group of Pac-12 players in announcing a movement they say has the support of hundreds of peers within their conference. They have threatened mass opt-outs by players if concerns about COVID-19 protocols, racial injustice in college sports and economic rights for athletes are not addressed.

#BigTenUnited arrived on the scene a couple days later, a movement that claimed the backing off 1,000 Big Ten football players. Their demands were more targeted, strictly related to health and safety in dealing with COVID-19.

Sunday night, the call with Reynolds, Rencher and Lawrence led to a Zoom meeting — of course — with some of the Pac-12 players involved in “WeAreUnited.”

Washington State defensive lineman Dallas Hobbs got to work on a graphic and now the movement is officially nationwide.

“Just started bouncing ideas off each others’ heads and kind of discussing where we go from here and we ended up coming up with that statement,” said Reynolds, a senior from South Orange, New Jersey.

Under the logos of each Power Five conference — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — the players pronounced their platform:

—We all want to play football this season.

Coming in today/Monday and in recent hours from the Washington Post:
from Chuck Culpepper and Cindy Boren…CLICK HERE to read all…

College football players, including Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State’s Justin Fields, spoke forcefully Sunday night , stating that the fall football season should be saved, even as momentum seemed to tilt toward cancellation, and urging players to unite in a players union.
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence:
(“People are at just as much, if not more risk, if we don’t play,” Lawrence wrote on Twitter. “Players will all be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract covid-19.

“Not to mention the players coming from situations that are not good for them/their future and having to go back to that. Football is a safe haven for so many people. We are more likely to get the virus in everyday life than playing football.)

The leaders of college sports reportedly will determine the fate of the football season this week after Connecticut became the first of the 130 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs to cancel its 2020 season over concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. The Mid-American Conference followed on Saturday, becoming the first conference in the top-tier FBS to do so. Against that backdrop, the message from players highlighted one of the unforeseen residual effects of the pandemic: college football players accessing their untapped reservoir of power. It began with a unity group from the Pac-12, which last week expressed concerns about the pandemic as well as players’ rights in a statement similar to the national statement.

On Sunday night, players shared a social media message that arose from a Zoom meeting and featured #WeWantToPlay and #WeAreUnited hashtags. Lawrence, a quarterback who is projected to be the top pick in the 2021 NFL draft, believes players are less likely to catch the virus on campus than at home.

“People are at just as much, if not more risk, if we don’t play,” Lawrence wrote on Twitter. “Players will all be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract covid-19.

“Not to mention the players coming from situations that are not good for them/their future and having to go back to that. Football is a safe haven for so many people. We are more likely to get the virus in everyday life than playing football.

7 thoughts on “College Football Players Unite in an Effort/Union to Save Their Season:”We All Want To Play Football This Season”(The Players have a ‘Plan to Play’)

  1. Molly McGrath(ESPN College Football Sideline Reporter)
    @MollyAMcGrath

    Just spoke with my dad, who’s a research scientist and doctor studying CoVid. He believes that student athletes could be safer if they remain with their teams bc they’ll be closely monitored and have more motivation to isolate and avoid social situations.

  2. Joey Burrow(former LSU quarterback)
    @JoeyB

    I feel for all college athletes right now. I hope their voices are heard by the decision makers. If this happened a year ago I may be looking for a job right now.

  3. Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump

    The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled. #WeWantToPlay….

    Note on what the President is saying:
    from GreensboroSports.com….If they are not going to be playing this Fall, why did they even start practicing???? Does not make any sense at all….

  4. Justin Fields(Ohio State Buckeyes Quarterback)
    @justnfields

    There’s been too much work put in!! #WeWantToPlay….

  5. Ryan Field
    @ryan_field10

    The idea that Trevor Lawrence(Clemson Tigers’ QB) could sign a multimillion dollar sponsorship, and secure the #1 overall pick (40M gaurenteed) within the next 48 hours if the NCAA was to cancel the season and he’s still wants to play, says a lot.

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