Memphis will take its off-field social activism onto the football field this fall.
Across the country, student-athletes, football players especially, have seen their collective voices grow louder in protesting for racial equality and against social injustices. And flags. Several members of the Memphis football program took to the streets of their city last month to do just that.
This week, on his personal Twitter account, first-year Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield announced that his players will wear “BLM” decals on their helmets throughout the 2020 college football season. “BLM,” of course, stands for the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
“The use of the BLM logo on a helmet decal was an idea from our student-athletes,” Silverfield told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal in a text message. “It doesn’t mean we support any anti-American, violent organization or hate group or any specific political party. In fact, I love this country and I love our players. Rather the decal is a show of support to our team.”
And what of a backlash against wearing the decals? It was subsequently reported by The Athletic that "[a] prominent University of Memphis booster has informed the school that he will match, and then double, whatever donations the school might lose as a result of the Black Lives Matter helmet decal.”
The name of the booster was not revealed.
Memphis is coming off a school-record 12-win football campaign. They claimed the program’s first-ever win in the AAC championship game after two straight losses.
Head coach Mike Norvell left the school for the same job at Florida State in mid-December. Memphis stayed in-house for its next head coach, with Silverfield, the offensive line coach, promoted three days later.
