When the story first came out about a mutiny at Grambling over bad conditions, paying for meals on the road, and riding the bus long distances to games, I thought it would blow over. Most times when you hear about this it’s really just a few disgruntled players. Not this time. The players have decided to take a stand by not boarding the bus to play Jackson State. Grambling has now forfeited the game:
JSU-Grambling game won't be made up. Grambling forfeits
— Ros Dumlao (@rosdumlao) October 18, 2013
I applaud the players for taking a stand. In a situation like this, they will face backlash but that’s ok. Sometimes you realize that taking a stand for what’s right is not always the popular thing to do. I don’t think its too much to ask for the player to be able to get a new gym mat in the weight room for example.
Grambling safety Dwight Amphy had this to say which was on the money:
“We knew what we were getting ourselves into when we came to Grambling. We new we weren’t going to have all this and that, the best stuff. We knew we weren’t going to LSU,” Amphy says. “But it could be better, even just a little bit better. Because it is not like we don’t have the athletes to compete, not like we aren’t trying to the best of our ability.”
The other sad part about this is this week is Jackson State’s homecoming. JSU announced that all homecoming festivities will go on as planned and they do plan to refund tickets to the game. Jackson State will play a scrimmage against itself instead. This still is likely far from over but it could be a long time before things are the same at Grambling.