Cocks Coach Calls for Cancellation of Confederate Colors
University of South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier is no idiot. He may be a loudmouthed, arrogant prick, but at least hes not completely moronic. And when he sees something that needs to be changed in his new home state, well dad gummit, the Old Ball Coach is going to tell it like it is, ya hear?
The Confederate flag shouldn't fly at the Statehouse, South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier said Saturday after the Gamecocks' spring game.
Spurrier's comments came in response to questions about something he said Friday night when he received an award from a volunteer organization. According to people at that event, Spurrier said the flag should come down.
"My opinion is we don't need the Confederate flag at our Capitol," Spurrier said Saturday. "I don't really know anybody that wants it there, but I guess there are a lot of South Carolinians that do want it there."
Unfortunately, Spurrier is right. Lots of South Carolinians do want to keep the flag flying in the statehouse. Though with such idiotic arguments for keeping it like the Civil War wasnt really about slavery so therefore the Confederate flag isnt offensive or you know there were racists in the North too, dont you!?!?! its a bit tough to see why its taken so long to get this thing removed.
The flag was removed from the dome in 2000, but placed at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Statehouse grounds. The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said that was not good enough and continued its boycott. The initial boycott drew wide support from inside and outside the state, but encouragement for the ongoing effort has waned in recent years.
Spurriers words in protest of the existence of the flag were peppered with some of the typical down-home folksiness that has made him a favorite interview for sportswriters.
On a video of the banquet, Spurrier is heard saying the South Carolina-Tennessee game last year, which was featured on ESPN's "GameDay," was marred "by some clown ... waving that dang, damn Confederate flag behind the TV set. And it was embarrassing to me and I know embarrassing to our state.
"I realize I'm not supposed to get in the political arena as a football coach, but if anybody were ever to ask me about that damn Confederate flag, I would say we need to get rid of it. I've been told not to talk about that. But if anyone were ever to ask me about it, I certainly wish we could rid of it."
It makes sense why Spurrier would publicly push for having the Confederate Flag removed from statehouse grounds. Spurrier, about to enter into his third season of attempting to breathe life into perennial SEC football doormat South Carolina, knows what it takes to build a national powerhouse having formerly coached at perennial SEC ass-kicker (and current national champion) Florida. In order to win football games, you have to recruit better athletes than the other guy. And for small-state schools like South Carolina, that means recruiting out-of-state athletes. Specifically in football factory states like Florida, Texas, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The problem for Spurrier comes in when an African American kid from Pittsburgh or Houston or Orlando comes to visit his campus and sees the Confederate Flag flying all over the place. If that kid is also being recruited at other second-tier football schools like Illinois, UCLA or Boston College, its going to be a tough sell. If Spurrier plans to compete for recruits with the first-tier Texas, USC or Michigans of the world its going to be practically impossible.
This is not to say that Spurrier doesnt also have legitimate issues of conscious with a noxious reminder of the system of oppression being flown with pride at his employers capitol building, but the recruiting issue is a notable one. Which is why hes willing to speak out when hes been asked not to, and why some of his contemporaries have done the same.
Spurrier's predecessor, Lou Holtz, joined Clemson's football coach Tommy Bowden and both schools' head basketball coaches in calling for the flag to be removed from the Capitol dome in 2000, when the NAACP started a boycott of the state.
The NCAA has imposed restrictions on the state of South Carolina for its use of the Confederate Flag. Until it is removed, the state is ineligible to host pre-determined championship events, like the mens or womens Final Four.
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