Missouri bill would strip scholarships if athletes strike

Republican state representative Rick Brattin on Monday pre-filed the bill, which “provides that any college athlete on scholarship who refuses to play for a reason unrelated to health shall have his or her scholarship revoked”.

“Any member of a coaching staff who encourages or enables a college athlete” to refuse to play a game “shall be fined by his or her institution of employment”, the bill provides.

“The university should have stood against this anarchy that happened with this protest”, Brattin told CBSSports.com.

Now-retired Missouri Tigers football coach Gary Pinkel publicly supported the 32 players and canceled a scheduled Sunday practice to prevent the players from falling afoul of team rules.

“The issue really is, they can have the freedom of speech (when they) like or don’t like something on campus”, Bahr said, according to the newspaper.

“That is state money”.

A hunger strike by student activists upset over the supposed acts of racism at the university catalyzed unrest on the campus and the team’s boycott.

Graduate student Jonathan Butler refused to eat and football players threatened to not play until Wolfe stepped down, which he did November 9.

This concern was brought into particularly sharp focus last month, when students at the University of Missouri protested an administration that they perceived to be absentee when it came to taking action to change what had always been an openly racist campus culture.

The legislation sends a message to athletes, said Former Missouri football player Lucas Vincent, in a series of tweets. “For them to threaten and say we want heads and to not fulfill their obligations is something that simply should not be tolerated”. “I’m more than just a football player…”