Illinois tight end Luke Ford had a scorching hot take on how to potentially handle racists in a recent video.
With protests breaking out all over America in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, race in the country is once again under the spotlight. Ford tweeted a video Sunday afternoon, and he was making some solid points about needing to make some changes. Things then took a bit of a strange turn. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
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“There’s not a bill or law you could pass that will end racists…Well, if you passed a bill that said if you’re a racist, you’d be killed that might work, which I’m not opposed to that,” Ford told his audience.
You can watch his full comments below.
Black Lives Matter • I don’t wanna argue about a thing #BeTheChange pic.twitter.com/Ws0keQkszy
— L U K E F O R D???????? (@lukeford82) June 7, 2020
He later clarified in a tweet to me that he was “obviously not being serious about that… smh.”
Obviously not being serious about that… smh
— L U K E F O R D???????? (@lukeford82) June 7, 2020
How long do we think this video stays up for before he ends up having to delete it over that line? What the hell was he thinking by saying that? Even if he says it was a joke (didn’t come off that way at all), it’s still not what we need right now.
Ford was a major football recruit coming out of high school when he landed at Georgia before transferring to Illinois. We’re talking about one of the biggest recruits in the country in the past few years.
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He has a gigantic platform and just used it to say he’s “not opposed” to legalizing the killing of people who might be racist.
Joking or not, that’s the kind of rhetoric that is going to cause major problems in America. That’s the kind of rhetoric that could potentially lead to some bad outcomes.
The sad thing is that he threw away a video that was actually not too bad. He was making some good points, but then it just went off the rails.
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It’s important for athletes to speak up, but they need to recognize their words carry a lot of power. Hopefully, he realizes the stupidity of what he’s saying.