The late legendary football coach Eddie Robinson probably wouldn’t recognize the Grambling State University football program that he once directed. The atmosphere has become so intolerant that even the players have had it. On Tuesday, team members walked out in on a meeting with the school’s president and athletic director, the Shreveport Times reports.
The team is allegedly upset regarding the firing of coach Doug Williams last month and the school’s use of ground transportation, such as busses, to shuttle players to distant away games. Williams, an NFL legend and Robinson’s star player in the Tigers hey-day, was fired earlier in the season.
According to the paper, none of the players attended Wednesday’s practice session. At 0-7, there is plenty to be upset about for Grambling players — but Tuesday’s meeting with president Frank Pogue, athletic director Aaron James, interim coach George Ragsdale and student government president Jordan Harvey was held primarily to address the travel situation.
According to the Times, players walked out when Harvey called the team “soft” — something the student body president now calls a message of support that was misinterpreted. “It was basically a munity,” a newspaper source said. “[The team] rode the bus all that way [to Indianapolis], and then come back and are disrespected like that. [The team] is standing together because they don’t know if anybody else is standing with them.”
Grambling has lost 17 consecutive games to NCAA teams. “Every week we go against the opposing team, they’re fans, our ‘fans’ and our president,” linebacker Steve Orisakwe tweeted.
