The lyrics to ESPN College Gameday’s theme song are unmistakable.
‘Well we're comin' to your city.’ Those words resonate with college football fans and lovers nationwide. It signals the start of a Saturday full of football, tailgating and screaming college kids praying their sign makes it on screen after hours of waiting in line to get their spot near the Gameday set.
But in this year’s coronavirus-era of college football, those words still ring loud and clear but to a different tune. Yes, Saturdays are still chock-full with football, but only in some conferences. Yes, there are screaming fans, but only virtually.
And considering the social unrest in Louisville in response to Breonna Taylor’s killing, the continual deaths of unarmed Black people at the hands of police and other parties and an ever-developing social justice movement nationwide, the words ‘We're comin' to your city,’ will mean nothing like they’ve ever meant before as the "College Gameday" crew starts their show at 9 a.m. Saturday from the University of Louisville with the Cards and Miami Hurricanes preparing to play at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.
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“It’s certainly something that I think we’ve all taken great care to be aware of so that we are informed,” said "College Gameday" host Rece Davis, who spoke to local reporters via Zoom Friday. “You want to find the right balance.
“I think the mantra from the top of our company has been: Issues away from the field where they intersect with sports, we will not hesitate to delve into those topics, and that certainly qualifies here because of issues surrounding Breonna Taylor.”
Topics of race and social injustice are not things that Gameday has shied away from in the past. There have been roundtable talks between ESPN’s Maria Taylor and college football players about player-led coalitions for social change. There have been on-air discussions between the Gameday crew about the social status of the nation and how it has impacted them.
There have been tears shed.
On Sept. 5, Gameday’s first show of the college football season, Kirk Herbstreit, who serves as an analyst and top color commentator for ESPN, let his raw emotions show on national television.
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"The Black community is hurting. If you've listened. How do you listen to these stories and not feel pain and not want to help?" Herbstreit asked through a veil of tears during the show’s segment on the intersection of college football and the social justice.
“Wearing a hoodie," he continued. “Putting your hands at 10 and 2. ‘Oh God, I’d better watch out because I’m wearing Nike gear.’ Like, what? What are we talking about? You can’t relate to that if you’re white, but you can listen and you can try to help. Because this is not OK. It’s just not.”
Stanford offensive lineman Dylan Boles was a participant in the segment that brought Herbstreit to tears. He and several other players from around the country sat down with Taylor virtually to discuss the social unrest and what role they and their football teams had played to incite change in their cities.
Boles, a white man, told The Courier Journal that it is important for him and other white men such as Herbstreit, who have a brand and platform, to speak up and be allies to the Black community.
“To see him have that attachment and understand the gravity and magnitude of what’s going on in our country and having a sense of sorrow over it and a willingness to try to do something to improve it, is what people need to see” and it furthers the conversation, Boles said.
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Louisville defensive coordinator Bryan Brown said he watched that segment, too. The vulnerability Herbstreit and the rest of the crew showed impressed him.
“When you have a grown man that cries on national TV, I don’t think that’s fake,” Brown said.
Kirk’s message touched Brown’s heart in that moment, because Brown said he can directly identify with it. He can relate to being profiled and having to respond properly to certain situations to ensure his own safety.
“In this building here (at Louisville) we’re doing everything in our power to try to come together as one,” Brown said, “and use our platform to tell everybody: ‘Hey, just love everybody no matter the color of your skin, no matter what race you are...it doesn’t matter, just love each other as your neighbor and everything will be OK.”
So, yes, football is back and there’s a reason to cheer. Yes, College Gameday is ‘comin' to your city,’ Louisville for the first time since Lamar Jackson faced off with Clemson’s Deshaun Watson in 2017.
But this week, "College Gameday" will not be the same.
Contact Andre Toran at atoran@gannett.com or follow on Twitter @andretoran. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.
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