The athletic director at Illinois State University did the ultimate no-no! He holds the belief that every single life matters.
From The Chicago Sun-Times:
Students in all but one of the university’s 17 athletics programs have said they won’t return to their teams until their list of social justice demands are met, including a concrete, comprehensive plan of action to support racial justice protests and a commitment to diversity in the athletics administration. The missed team events are mostly practices because competitions are postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.The Athletics Department released a plan Monday afternoon that partially addressed some of those issues, but that athletes quickly said was insufficient.The strike started after athletic director Larry Lyons said on a department-wide preseason call last Wednesday that “all Redbird lives matter,” referencing the university’s mascot in a play on the “all lives matter” slogan often used by critics of the Black lives matter movement.Students who said they were offended by the comments took to social media to list their demands, which also included hiring mental health professionals who specialize in “minority struggles” and more diversity among athletics trainers. Athletes have said coaches and alums have been supportive.A coach on ISU’s track and field team wrote on Twitter that Lyons’ comment was “insensitive and frankly one that attempts to drown the movement.” An assistant coach with ISU’s men’s basketball program posted a message that called “all lives matter” comments “hurtful and cruel.” Davontae Harris, an NFL player and ISU alum, said in a Tweet that he was going to have to “disassociate myself with Illinois State as a whole” and that Lyons “was fully aware of what he was doing … we can’t keep allowing people to pretend like they don’t know any better.”
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