A Missouri state legislator sparked a firestorm of criticism after he filed a bill that would crack down on athletes who strike and coaches who support them. The measure, introduced by Rep. Rick Brattin (R) and co-sponsor Rep. Kurt Bahr (R) on Friday, stipulated “any college athlete who calls, incites, supports, or participates in any strike or concerted refusal to play a scheduled game shall have his or her scholarship revoked.” The bill also mandated that any coach who encourages such behavior be fined by the university.
After significant backlash, the measure was withdrawn Wednesday. “While I am withdrawing the legislation, I hope the conversation will continue,” Brattin said in an emailed statement. “I sincerely believe students should be able to express their viewpoints, but I also believe our flagship state university has to keep and maintain the order this is expected from such an esteemed educational institution.”
Brattin’s proposal comes in response to last month’s uprising at the University of Missouri. Students had been protesting the university’s tepid response to numerous acts of racism on campus for several weeks, but when 32 of the football team’s black players joined the cause and refused to play or practice until university system president Tim Wolfe resigned, school administrators could no longer ignore the movement. Their coach, Gary Pinkel, publicly expressed his support for the players and soon the entire team was on strike.
With $1 million on the line if the football team backed out of its upcoming game, Wolfe quickly stepped down and the athletes’ activism became a topic of national discussion regarding the role of student-athletes, particularly those of color, in the massive money-making college sports complex.
Brattin had a different take, telling CBS Sports that Wolfe’s decision “was a knee-jerk reaction” and “the university should have stood against this anarchy that happened with this protest.”
The legislators’ bill was not only criticized as an attempt to stifle students’ First Amendment rights, but as Mina Kimes noted on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, it starts a conversation the NCAA likely wants nothing to do with “because it challenges the idea that they’re athletes first and students second.” What’s more, state funds aren’t even used for athletic scholarships — they’re paid for through private donations and other sources.
“This bill would have been a disaster for recruiting, the university, and basic human decency,” Ramogi Huma, former UCLA linebacker and founder of the National College Players Association (NCPA), told ThinkProgress. “It was an attempt to intimidate, control, and silence Missouri players who stood against racism. The bill was disgraceful.”
Despite the national attention they’d received, Bahr told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he was surprised by Brattin’s decision to withdraw the measure: “Unfortunately, it’s going to be seen as a coup by those who opposed the bill.”
Brattin has come under fire for his proposed legislation in the past. Last year he filed a bill that would require any woman seeking an abortion to obtain notarized consent from the man who impregnated them, allowing exceptions for cases of “legitimate rape.” This year, he sought to impose more regulations on Planned Parenthood by suggesting the state pass legislation requiring the organization to build a memorial dedicated to aborted fetuses. In 2013, he introduced a bill that would require Missouri schools to give intelligent design and “destiny” the same amount of attention given to evolution.