“Wokeness” is slowly ruining sports across the board.
Both the NFL and NBA have witnessed a drop in ratings since their full embrace of left-wing politics.
Now one football coach is under fire for an unbelievable reason.
Former players for Iowa Hawkeyes are threatening a lawsuit against the university over alleged claims of racial discrimination.
And Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, the longest-tenured coach currently in college, is squarely in the crosshairs of the potential litigants.
From the Des Moines Register:
“Eight Black former University of Iowa football players are seeking $20 million in compensation and for athletics director Gary Barta, head coach Kirk Ferentz and assistant coach Brian Ferentz to be fired over what they contend was intentional racial discrimination during their Hawkeye careers.”
The insane demands come on the heels of long-time strength coach Chris Doyle being scapegoated by the university.
Doyle was accused of using the N-word around players, but he denied the charge and long-time colleagues vouched for him.
From the Register:
“Doyle said on June 7 that he has never made racist comments, and current Iowa strength coach Raimond Braithwaite (who is Black and has known Doyle since 2002) recently said he had “never witnessed or heard (Doyle) make a racial comment.” On June 15, it was announced that Doyle would be paid $1.1 million by the UI as part of a separation agreement.”
The group of former players are also demanding attorney fees, the creation of a permanent black male senior administration position within the athletic department, mandatory antiracism training, an advisory board of antiracism counselors to oversee the football program, and tuition waivers for any black athlete who didn’t graduate while playing for Ferentz.
This is a ridiculous shakedown in the Al Sharpton tradition.
The players and their activist lawyer are asking for absurd concessions hoping to get at least some of them.
Sadly, the university caved to some of the smaller demands, but balked at the cash shakedown and the termination requests.
Neither professional nor college football was particularly political until Colin Kaepernick started the anti-American anthem protests.
And after the death of George Floyd was used as a pretense to make everything political, the activism eventually spread to college football, which had largely been impervious to politics.
Since 2017, Clemson, Alabama, and LSU all visited the White House while several professional teams boycotted the customary trip because of Donald Trump.
LSU had a particularly fun time on their visit.
It is now the United States of Louisiana. pic.twitter.com/1BVqQhTrYd
— Connor Despino (@ConnorDespino) January 17, 2020
But now college football has become “woke.”
Activists pushed PAC-12 and Big Ten athletes to call for an NCAA players’ union, and Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy was forced to apologize for wearing a One America News Network T-shirt on a fishing trip.
Ferentz is having his name dragged through the mud based on charges that appear flimsy at best.
Woke politics is like a disease, and it’s slowly infecting the game of college football.
