MURFREESBORO — Even in sports, there is no hiding from real issues that continue to plague our country.

You can blame whoever you want for bringing it to light.

Blame San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee during the national anthem last month.

Blame Tennessee Titans players for raising their fists after the national anthem for their home opener against the Minnesota Vikings.

Blame whoever you want.

But there is no denying the realities a certain group of Americans face every day.

Yes, even those multimillionaire NFL players.

But I cover MTSU, so I should just stick to writing about college sports, right?

There is no place for a discussion on race and police relations in college sports, right?


In July, following a week of police shootings and a mass shooting in Dallas that left five officers dead, MTSU safety Alex Dale’s words stuck with me.

"As an African-American male it hit me hard just to see that there are people that look like me that are getting killed," Dale said. "But being 22, it is still very hard to grasp the magnitude of what's going on."

Dale and other African-American players from pee-wee football to the NFL have to deal with daily realities not many of us will experience in a lifetime.

They have to deal with what seems like an eternal cycle of inaction that often begins with the line:

“Well why don’t we just wait for the facts to come out before we talk about race?”

The same people who immediately throw that line out are often the same people who are giving their instant opinions on these issues.

The fact this week is this: Terence Crutcher, an unarmed African-American male, was shot by police on his driver’s side door on a Tulsa, Okla., road.

Crutcher had no weapon on him or in the car, Tulsa police confirmed.

While this didn’t happen in Murfreesboro, it’s yet another shooting and cycle that hits home for a lot for African-American athletes.

What players in the NFL are trying to do is open a dialogue, and the fact that they’ve had to resort to using the national anthem to get their voices heard says more about where we are as a country.

Racism, both systematic and blatant, still exists and we must address it.

Kaepernick could’ve picked a better outlet because his message is often lost in the debate over the national anthem. Even though it’s his First Amendment right, his method might have offended veterans.

But after yet another week of violence, can you hear him now?
