One anonymous coach, who was overheard shouting into a phone during practice, reportedly said, “Good on PFATS! We need to remind these kids that football isn’t just about touchdowns and Super Bowl rings. It’s about standing tall, literally and figuratively. If you can’t even do that, you don’t deserve to be on the field, let alone receive a scholarship.”
Unsurprisingly, the players affected by this decision were less than thrilled. One of the now-former scholarship recipients, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed his frustration in a series of tweets that have since gone viral. “So I kneel for two minutes and lose my scholarship? What about the 60 minutes I spend getting hit by linebackers twice my size? Does that not count for anything?” he tweeted, along with a GIF of a facepalm that has since been retweeted thousands of times.
Another player, known for his outspoken activism on and off the field, took to Instagram to share his thoughts. “They can take away my scholarship, but they can’t take away my voice. Kneeling was never about disrespecting the flag; it was about calling attention to issues that matter. If PFATS can’t see that, maybe they’re the ones who need a timeout.”
