KNOXVILLE – Two weeks ago, a group of Tennessee football players were surprised when head coach Jeremy Pruitt joined them in attending a Black Lives Matter gathering in downtown Knoxville.
The coach joined them on stage and told the crowd that the peaceful event was an example of “doing it the right way.”
“This is what we have to do and we have to do it together,” he said.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone then that Pruitt said during a Zoom teleconference on Thursday that the Vols are discussing wearing black jerseys for the Kentucky game on Nov.
7. The jerseys would be auctioned off thereafter to raise money for the BLM movement.
The idea came from discussions with associate head coach Tee Martin and the team’s culture committee about what to do moving forward. To clarify, Martin said on Jayson Swain’s radio show Friday morning that any proceeds raised would stay in East Tennessee with a local organization that supports black lives.
The auction idea is another example of UT’s coaches joining with the players on this matter. The prevailing circumstances continue to unfold in a manner befitting a sea change, not a hot flash. Pruitt is smart to stay engaged with his players on the topic and to listen to their ideas.
“One of the things that we want to do is when we play the Kentucky game, we want to wear the black jerseys,” Pruitt said. “When the game is over with, find a way to auction the jerseys and raise money for Black Lives Matter.
“That is one thing our kids have talked about. It is something that is going to continue to be stressed with our staff. With Tee’s leadership and the guys within our program, there’s a lot of really good ideas we can help improve and use our platform to create change.”
Along these lines, Pruitt said the process of getting all the players registered to vote in underway. The presidential election is Nov. x, the same week as the Kentucky game.
“There are lots of things when students get back on campus,” Pruitt said. “Speakers that we plan to have come in here, things that we want to do during the season.”
The subject of football games in general was broached in a different forum on Thursday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a lead spokesperson for President Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, expressed concern about the upcoming season.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble - insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day – it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci told CNN.
Fauci’s pessimism contrasted the optimism for playing games expressed on Wednesday by Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer.
In the meantime, Pruitt said that most of the players have returned to campus for voluntary workouts and no player has tested positive for the virus. There’s only been one known positive test within the program and that was a graduate assistant coach.
The Vols continue to rely on their medical staff for guidance and the players to follow the established safety measures.
“It’s one of those things that you’ve got to have awareness,” Pruitt said, “and that’s something that we’ve continued to stress amongst the people within our organization.”
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who covered University of Tennessee athletics from 1988-2019. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.