A number of Black former Iowa Hawkeyes football players have spoken out against the Kirk Ferentz's program in recent months, and on Monday former All-Big Ten cornerback Amari Spievey said that program wanted its Black athletes to be like "white Iowa kids."
"We couldn't wear earrings, we couldn't wear hats, we had to dress a certain way," he told Adam Rittenberg and Michele Steele of ESPN. "They wanted us to be white Iowa kids. [They] wanted us to fit that mold. We couldn't be us. We had to be like them."
"There's been a systematic issue there.