Fans at a US college football match.
It is a rare day when we wonder what National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) coaches are saying about racial justice and social change in the United States.
But this is a moment to pay close attention. The Charleston massacre at Mother Emanuel Church, an act of white supremacist terrorism 鈥 no matter what the FBI believes 鈥 has revived the demand that the Confederate flag come down from the Capitol grounds in South Carolina's capital, Columbia.
The horrific nature of the crime that killed nine innocent people has even put die-hard supporters of the stars and bars, like South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, on their heels. With a quisling鈥檚 cowardice, Haley says the issue needs to be 鈥渢alked about again鈥.
But maybe we would not have to re-litigate this question and that toxic symbol of racist terror would not be flying with government sanction if the state's NCAA coaches had been heard.
Legendary University of South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier, a man of the south with a drawl so thick it sounds like he has a mouth full of honey, said in April of 2007: 鈥淢y opinion is we don't need the Confederate flag at our Capitol. I don't really know anybody that wants it there, but I guess there are a lot of South Carolinians that do want it there.鈥
The setting was an awards banquet. Spurrier 鈥渃aught everyone by surprise鈥 by speaking off the cuff about his disgust over a 2006 South Carolina-Tennessee game, where in the background on national television at ESPN's GameDay he was appalled to see 鈥渟ome clown 鈥 waving that dang, damn Confederate flag behind the TV set.
鈥淎nd it was embarrassing to me and I know embarrassing to our state.鈥
Spurrier said: 鈥淚 realise I'm not supposed to get in the political arena as a football coach, but if anybody were ever to ask me about that damn Confederate flag, I would say we need to get rid of it.
鈥淚've been told not to talk about that. But if anyone were ever to ask me about it, I certainly wish we could get rid of it.鈥
Spurrier was not the first University of South Carolina football coach to come out against 鈥渢hat dang, damn Confederate flag鈥.
In April of 2000, Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz, was part of a 120-mile march from Charleston to Columbia to call for the flag to come down. He was joined by Clemson University football coach Tommy Bowden and the South Carolina and Clemson men's basketball coaches at the time, Eddie Fogler and Larry Shyatt.
In 2001, Holtz said: 鈥淚t is just not right. When I look into the eyes of my players and see how hurt they are, then I am disturbed about the Confederate flag.鈥
He added: 鈥淲e need not to take a segment of our society and treat them with disrespect and that is the way our Black players feel about the Confederate flag.鈥
All of these coaches are white guys whose professional prosperity in the state depended upon the ability to recruit and coach young Black men.
This is not to say that their feelings were not fuelled by genuine moral outrage. But the pivot toward success or the unemployment line for every college coach is traced to that moment when they are sitting in living rooms with 鈥 more often than not 鈥 Black families.
The South Carolina and Clemson coaches are tasked with trying to convince these families that their children will be not only safe but also valued in a state covered, as Daily Show host Jon Stewart said, with 鈥渞acist wallpaper鈥.
The college football coach is allegedly a revered position in the south-east of the United States. Yet on this issue, their words were met with silence or derision.
They were harangued with the same blinkered arguments about the flag being one of 鈥渉eritage not hate鈥, as if those two words could not be one and the same, locked in their own Dixie death grip.
Taking down that flag, which first flew over the Capitol in 1961 when it was raised in response to the civil rights movement, would not end racism. But it would make the atmosphere just a little less poisonous.
They say in politics that timing is everything. Spurrier spoke out in 2007. All that did was turn some heads. If he said the same words now, it could be a true tipping point.
Here is hoping he speaks out. Then finally 鈥渢hat dang, damn Confederate flag鈥 would fly on the South Carolina Capitol grounds no longer.
[Reprinted from .]
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