(Photo: Michigan State athletics)
LANSING - One week had passed since George Floyd took his final breath under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, and members of the Michigan State football program had something to say.
They sat in houses all across America, quarantined by the coronavirus pandemic that had halted their spring practices. When the first team meeting popped up on Zoom the Monday after Floyd's death, players came ready to talk.
The coaches had asked them to.
Mel Tucker turned to Darien Harris to kick off the conversation. They are the head coach and director of player development, respectively, of a college football team made up of 18- to 22-year-olds coming of age in one of the most politicized eras in American history.