I have been thinking long and hard about the recent statement from Ohio State. I never want to speak for athletes, but I’m not putting too much weight behind the statement.

There are a few things we must take into account when athletes are represented by athletic departments:

First, I never trust statements from athletic departments signed by a conglomerate of nameless athletes. It’s entirely possible that some athletes agree with the statement. It’s also possible that some disagree. We can’t know for sure until we see actual signatures.

Considering OSU’s athletic director is Gene Smith and its former president served on the NCAA’s Board of Governors and both worked alongside the NCAA to slow/reverse NIL reform, I would not be surprised if the athletic department is similarly misrepresenting plenty of athletes.

I’m aware that OSU athletes are retweeting the statement. That doesn’t mean they truly support it. Remember the Chuba Hubbard video from the other OSU? This could be a similar situation, where athletes are fearful of rocking the boat so they’re appeasing their coaches.

It also might not be a Chuba Hubbard hostage video situation. But college coaches have a nasty history of censoring their athletes and I always take that into account when I look at athletes’ social media accounts. So let’s not be so quick to villanize these athletes.

Finally, if the statement truly represents the views of the majority of OSU athletes (which I don’t think it does), there are two things to keep in mind:

1.) Just because things are good at OSU doesn’t mean things are good across the NCAA.

OSU is one of the best-funded athletic departments in the U.S. If any school can pull off a season that athletes stand behind, it’s Ohio State. The rest of the NCAA? Not so much. We’re seeing outbreaks across the Big Ten and healthcare in the mid-majors is subpar.

So I do have to say that athletes supporting this statement without taking into account the overall context of coronavirus in college sports are tone deaf at best and dangerous at worst. Athletic platforms must be used wisely bc they are powerful.

I think it’s okay for athletes to praise their schools for their COVID efforts. But they also must acknowledge that other athletes have (anonymously) gone on record stating they feel unsafe and unheard. Failure to amplify these voices throws them under the bus and hurts activism.

2.) Even if 100% of OSU athletes stand behind this statement, this is still a minority opinion in the context of the #BigTenUnited movement. If we assume most college athletes are on board with requesting better healthcare/guaranteed scholarships, that percentage is even smaller.

In fact, even if every athlete across the Power Fives is comfortable with the health measures their athletic departments are taking (I guarantee they’re not), they make up under 1/6 of college athletes.

There are 5 conferences in the Power Five. There are 33 more conferences across the D1 mid-majors. Just because OSU released a statement supporting its athletic department on behalf of its athletes doesn’t make it a sucker punch to the activism we’ve seen this summer.

Yes, it sucks to read it, and I’ve had to refrain from typing out the knee-jerk “f— OSU” tweet I wanted to post originally. But when we take into account 1.) the myriad of ways athletes are censored by their schools, 2.) the historic nature of the current player movement,

and 3.) The fact that the majority of college athletes haven’t even spoken up yet, a departmental statement with zero real athlete signatures probably doesn’t carry as much weight as folks are saying.

As an edit to this thread, I understand that the OSU players letter wasn’t officially released by the athletic department. But it reads like a PR statement, and I’d bet good money there were athletic administrators behind it. I know a departmental letter when I see one.