As our country continues to recover from the COVID pandemic, the entire nation is also now confronted with racial issues once again bubbling to the surface following the death of George Floyd.
Racial unrest has stretched from coast to coast with protests taking place in major cities for days and days, prompting college coaches and their programs, and NFL personalities to share their view on the current state of America.
Earlier this week, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (along with a lot of other coaches) shared a statement as well as a video on the longstanding racial and social tensions in America and where they stand on it as a program.
Yesterday, Ferentz took it a step further. According to The Athletic's Scott Dochterman Ferentz wants his team to take a united position this fall.
That means they'll either all stand at attention for the national anthem, or all kneel together. Whichever one they decide on, they will do together.
Interestingly enough, the unified approach is the same one that the program took back in 2017, as running back Akrum Wadley shared with HawkCentral at the time.
"If we’re all going to do something, we’re all going to do it. We’re not going to have one person doing one thing and the rest of the team (doing another)."
Iowa decided as a team back then to stand and put their hand over their heart.
This fall, August will mark four years after Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick first took a knee before a preseason game during the national anthem to raise awareness of ongoing racism and police brutality, and now we could witness an entire college football program do the same.
As fall approaches, we can only wonder what happens as the Hawkeyes and other teams take the field, but rest assured that a lot of eyes will be on the team decision in Iowa City after Ferentz's comment yesterday. I imagine that the team will either all decide to kneel together, or they will put their right hand over their heart with their helmet in their left hand like they have customarily done under coach Ferentz.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Update >> Four days after posting this, a lot has happened at Iowa, and it looks like we may have an answer as a lot of Iowa players have posted this message.