Top College Football Players Unite to Save Season as Cancellation Looms

Stars like Trevor Lawrence are pushing for the chance to play despite the pandemic

Trevor Lawrence of the Clemson Tigers sits in the pocket
Trevor Lawrence of the Clemson Tigers sits in the pocket.
Alika Jenner/Getty Images

On Sunday night, some of the top college football players in the country from all five major conferences united to push for the opportunity to play this season despite the pandemic.

Players including Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, Michigan defensive back Hunter Reynolds and Stanford defensive lineman Dylan Boles took to Twitter using the hashtag #WeWantToPlay after connecting offline and speaking on Zoom, according to the Associated Press.

In addition to expressing their desire to play the 2020 season, the players all called for the groundwork for a College Football Players Association to begin being laid.

“We came to the conclusion, We Want to Play, their message might have been conveyed differently but at the end of the day the message wasn’t too far off from what Big Ten United wanted to promote,” Reynolds said. “Which is we all want to play sports this fall. Every athlete, I’m pretty sure, wants to play their sports. They just want to do so safely.”

The #WeWantToPlay initiative comes on the heels of Pac-12 players coming together in the #WeAreUnited group last weekend.

All of that effort may be for naught if what sports reporter Dan Patrick was told turns out to be true.

A previous ESPN report expressed a similar message.

“It doesn’t look good,” one Power 5 athletic director said.

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