I talked to one of the members of the #WeAreUnited movement, Arizona State offensive lineman Cody Shear, a week ago. Cody addressed several different topics, more than what would fit in one article.
In this particular piece, read what Cody Shear had to say about the reasons athletes are considering opting out of football and why they wanted to exert pressure on the Pac-12 and the larger college football industry:
“The number one thing a lot of people want to talk about is opting out of football. That’s what a lot of people might not understand: Not everyone involved in this movement is guaranteeing that they’re opting out of football. We’re Pac-12 players, we’re playing football for a reason — that’s what we do. But at the same time, we expect the NCAA can work with us on some of the issues we have put in front of them.
“Right now I think it’s really important for guys to do what they want to do… a lot of fans, people maybe on the outside of college football, will look at a player and tell them why they should or shouldn’t play. A lot of what people don’t realize is that some of these players have wives, girlfriends, little kids at home. On the other side of things, they have families that might have some underlying health issues, so yes, although we are healthy players in our college years, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone surrounding us is healthy as well.
“Some players are already opting out of playing, and some players are trying to decide whether they feel comfortable playing or not, and some players are all for playing, they just want to see this progress in the right direction. So that’s probably the number one thing where you’ll see a little bit of a divide in the decision making of student athletes.”