If you watch the Ohio State Buckeyes, then hear these Ohio State Buckeyes: Doug Lesmerises

COLUMBUS, Ohio — This is how Teradja Mitchell feels.

This is how Al Washington feels.

“Until we all share the pain that results from racism in its various forms,” he wrote on Twitter, “nothing will change. Instead of labeling, seek to understand. At the root we are all the same, and we all want the same things! Respect and equality. No one should have to accept a life without it.”

This is how Zach Harrison feels.

“Most people still don’t get it,” he wrote on Twitter. “Or they just don’t think that it’s reality. To be honest, if they don’t understand now, I don’t think they ever will.”

This is how Taron Vincent feels.

He retweeted a young man singing lyrics that begin, “I’m a young black man,” and end with, “I just want to live.”

This is how Josh Proctor feels.

He retweeted a cartoon of a white police officer asking a black child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and the child answering, “Alive.”

This is how Julian Fleming feels.

He retweeted photos of two white serial killers being calmly handcuffed by police and two African-American men accused of minor offenses dying at the hands of police.

This is how TreVeyon Henderson feels.

He went from tweeting about winning the Heisman Trophy to tweeting and re-tweeting 12 messages surrounding the death of George Floyd after a police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck Monday for at least eight minutes, according to court documents.

“Sorry followers,” Henderson wrote, “if standing up for my people offends you.”

This is how Tyreke Smith feels.

He wore a T-shirt that read, “I hope I don’t get killed for being black today,” to an Ohio State football recruiting camp … in 2017.

They are an Ohio State middle linebacker, linebackers coach, defensive end, defensive tackle, safety, receiver, running back recruit and defensive end.

You know them because they are Buckeye football players, and were ranked as the Nos. 44, 12, 20, 71, 3, 19 and 34 recruits in the nation in their classes. That’s seven top-100 Buckeyes, and a position coach in charge of recruiting players like them, in pain.

They are the players in the scarlet and gray, the faces under the helmets, and if you watch them, then you must hear them. Maybe you will absorb their words, support their words, act on behalf of the words, change the system so they won’t have to share their words again and again. Maybe you will hear them and disagree with them.

But you have to hear them. Parts of white America may be most connected to African Americans through the black athletes on their favorite teams. If you only see No. 3 on a uniform, a junior who was a four-star recruit who might share time at middle linebacker, without acknowledging Teradja Mitchell, a young man who doesn’t want to fear for his life around police officers, then your fandom at best is shallow. It might be hypocritical, asking amateur athletes to put their bodies on the line for the team you love without opening your ears, eyes and hearts to the realities of their lives.

Quincy Avery, a private quarterbacks coach who has worked with both former OSU quarterback Dwayne Haskins and current OSU quarterback Justin Fields, wrote on Twitter, “Wish y’all loved black people like you love the black men while they are wearing your college teams uniform.”

White players and coaches offered support Friday. Ohio State basketball coach Chris Holtmann and football coach Ryan Day tweeted messages, as did former OSU quarterback Joe Burrow, among others.

But it’s the black Buckeyes who live this. According to studies, 2010 was the first season in which major college football included more black players than white players. According to the 2018 College Sport Racial & Gender Report card, the FBS level of college football includes 39.8% white players and and 54.3% black players. In 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was signed, Ohio State’s starting lineups on both offense and defense, as listed in the historical section of the current team media guide, were entirely white. In 2020, the year George Floyd died, five of a projected 22 starters are white. More than 70 percent of the team’s scholarship athletes are black.

Their feelings are clear. Floyd’s death isn’t a sports story. But in a world where some African-American men are unjustly dying while some African-American men are playing for your favorite teams, race and social justice are sports stories.

You don’t have to imagine your favorite OSU football player on the ground with a police officer’s knee on his neck, gasping for breath in his final moments. You just have to realize your favorite has possibly imagined himself and his friends and family in that situation. Many would like to do something to change that.

Maybe some of their white fans could help them. At the very least, hear them. If not, ask yourself if you’re really their fan at all.

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