Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley had center Creed Humphrey to his left, defensive back Chanse Sylvie to his right and the Sooners football team directly behind him as the group — wearing all black — marched in the South Oval Friday morning.
OU football head coach Lincoln Riley speaks after walking through campus with his team.
“If all those people in there, who came from all different walks of life, can come together and find common ground why can’t that be done on a larger scale?”
Players, coaches and staff came out of the tunnel and stood midfield in solidarity briefly. Now headed out the back gate and onto the side of Lindsey St. pic.twitter.com/gZ259SQFrj
— Mason Young (@Mason_Young_0) August 28, 2020
In a demonstration of unity to speak out against police brutality against African Americans, the Sooners were hand-in-hand as they made their way from the practice fields to the Unity Garden. As Riley spoke to media and spectators, players locked arms and stood around the fourth-year head coach as he made his remarks.
"For the last several weeks including our last one yesterday after our practice, we've had a lot of team gatherings, discussions, opportunities for every person in our organization to express how they’re feeling," Riley said. "Like a lot of other college football teams across the country, our organization is made up of just about every different background that you can imagine — females, males, people of all kinds of different skin colors, ethnicities, backgrounds, home life, experiences — everything different. And those conversations have been tough. They’ve been raw and unfiltered, they’ve been eye-opening, very emotional, very tense.
"We chose this place because it symbolizes unity. And unity is possible. And it is possible with people of different backgrounds because I've witnessed it, and continue to witness it with this group right here."
After Riley concluded his speech, the team took a 57-second moment of silence in honor of the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr.
The Sooners chose to demonstrate late Thursday night after the team had what Riley described as weeks of discussions about racism in America. After Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officers shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake while attempting to arrest the Black man on Aug. 23, the nation took to protesting and public demonstrations. In the sports world, the NBA's slate of Wednesday playoff games were postponed due to teams choosing not to play.
Multiple Sooners used social media since then to speak out against the event. After marching back to OU's practice facilities, Riley spoke to the media, saying this is an opportunity for him and his staff to learn from his players.
"I grew up a white male," Riley said. "I have not lived or had to experience some of the things that a lot of my players have had to. As much as you want to read about it, this or that, it's different when it hits home and when it's somebody that you care about. It's absolutely been a learning experience for me. Every step of it. It's definitely made me more aware. ... I hope it will (help) us to continue to do a better job of leading (our players)."
Riley and the Sooners have been continually vocal about racial equality, as seen when the team took to social media in late May and June after the death of George Floyd, an Black man who was killed by Minneapolis law enforcement while being arrested for a nonviolent crime.
OU's Friday march is reminiscent of the team's march in 2015, when a Bob Stoops-led team walked out of practice wearing "Stronger Together" shirts in protest of the video of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members singing a racist chant.
"There's been a lot of buildup to this," Riley said. "The players, I commend them, our players have been a part of potential policy changes within our university, within the athletic department. We're always pushing our players to do more and more and more of it. That doesn't just apply for the football field, it doesn't just apply to the classroom."
