S
SEC Sports
Marvin Wilson: Players won't work out due to Mike Norvell quote
The defensive lineman says players are not happy with their head coach.
247sports.com
Florida State senior defensive tackle Marvin Wilson is apparently among many Seminoles football players upset with first-year head coach Mike Norvell. Just after midnight ET on Thursday, Wilson took to Twitter to express his displeasure with quotes Norvell made to a reporter in the wake of worldwide protests following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Part of the comments Wilson and other members of the football team took issue with was Norvell telling the reporter that he spoke to them each individually. Wilson wrote on Twitter that the players instead received a "generated" text. A screenshot of Wilson's tweet can be seen below.
"Man this s—t did not happen mane," Wilson wrote in a tweet. "We got a generated text that was sent to everybody. There was no one on one talk between us and coach. This is a lie and me and my teammates as a whole are outraged and we will not be working out until further notice."
On Wednesday, with protests across the country reaching a ninth day, three additional former Minneapolis police officers were charged surrounding the death of Floyd. Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had a third-degree murder charge upgraded to a second-degree murder charge on Wednesday, was filmed kneeling on Floyd's neck after he was on the ground handcuffed for suspicion of an alleged forgery charge at a local Minneapolis store. The other three officers involved in the arrest have been charged with aiding and abetting a second-degree murder while committing a felony and with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.
Floyd's death has sparked outrage and protests across the country, and many from the sports world, including teams, players and coaches, have weighed in on issues ranging from police brutality to systemic racism.
It appears that Norvell will have to reach out to further communicate with his players about his initial comments.
Norvell's full quote can be read below.
"We've had a lot of open communication with our team, our players and our coaches. I went back and forth individually with every player this weekend. And that was something that was important to me because this is a heartbreaking time in our country. You see hate and you see discrimination. You see some of the acts that have occurred; I mean it is a problem. And it's something that we have to work to get fixed. I'll continue to share with our guys the platform that they have and the opportunity that is there for them to make a difference, to be an influence and to be able to impact our country in a positive way by the overall mindset and approach of how we treat people to how we respond in situations. I told these guys just how grateful I am to be a part of this journey with them because they are the future. We've got an incredible group of men that I get a chance to work with as players and coaches. I'm honored to have the opportunity to help make a difference. That's something that we definitely have talked about in a big-picture team approach, but also, more specifically, the individual and group conversations. We're trying to meet our guys at their need and be able to share some of the emotions that we're all going through."
