If ever you wondered how active the Ohio State community is in change across the globe, the latest COVID-19 pandemic efforts, as well as the support of the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement should tell you all you need to know.
To a myriad of former and current players speaking on the pandemic, to former Ohio State football players coming together to support the George Floyd protests, to many other instances, Buckeye Nation is one that’s looking to move things forward in a positive direction.
Take former Buckeye linebacker Joshua Perry for instance. The BTN personality recently took time to react to the current state of affairs with race and sports, and the formation of the Big Ten Anti-Hate and Anti-Race Coaltion. The Big Ten Network shared some of his comments to its Twitter profile below and it’s well worth watching and acknowledging. If you’d rather read his comments, we have them transcribed on the following page as well.
But first, the video that has a link to the entire conversation.
Next … Perry’s comments
Joshua Perry’s comments on race and sports
“It really makes me excited (the formation of the Anti-Hate, Anti-Racism Coalition),” said Perry. “I think this is the importance of black leadership. And there are plenty of competent African American folks that could be in leadership positions that may be overlooked. When you see — when you have someone that looks like you be a champion for your voice and for all the things you believe in, I think it’s important to recognize. And having a coalition like that is obviously very important.”
“And the Big Ten Conference is very diverse — from big cities like Chicago — and Columbus, Ohio is a bigger city — you know, places like Happy Valley that are a little bit more isolated. You get all kinds of people from different walks of life. And I think the ability to coach the administrators and coach the coaches, but also to affect the student-athletes and to let them know that they have a support system is big. I think just overall for the conference to taking a lead like that is very important because I’ve said it before, but sports fans are very finicky.”
“They’ll cheer for people when they’re dunking the basketball and when they’re scoring touchdowns, but when the cheering stops after that three hours, how much do they really care and support the people they were just cheering for? So I think this reinforces that thinking that we’re dealing with people within the sports, and we’re dealing with people within the administration and all those different things. Having resources is key.”
Well said Mr. Perry. It’s great to see when a student of the game becomes a student of life and passes that knowledge on to others.
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