The team donned “I Can’t Breathe” shirts prior to their game against Kansas, signifying the last words of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo. Notre Dame women’s team became the first women’s team to wear “I can’t breathe” shirts this weekend.
Prior to Wednesday, however, college athletes have been largely silent on the issue. With the exception of University of Maryland wide receiver Deon Long—who asked “Are we still thugs when you pay to watch us play sports?” during a campus protest—and Knox College women’s basketball player Ariyana Smith, other individual athletes have not spoken out about the issue.
Smith said she understands why her fellow athletes have remained silent.
“For most of these guys, I think they fear retribution from their institutions if they do speak up,” said Dr. Robert Bennett III, a staffer at the Todd Anthony Bell Resource Center on the African-American Male, housed at Ohio State University.
Though Gail Dent, the NCAA’s associate director of public and media relations, said the NCAA doesn’t have any policies against student-athletes being involved in social protests, Smith said, “There are very tangible repercussions” for speaking out in protest.
Dent acknowledged that the NCAA does not intervene in individual institutional punishments for protest.
