Urban Meyer has denied ever showing a photo of Trayvon Martin to justify banning hoodies while coaching at Ohio State.
Former defensive back Marcus Williamson set Twitter on fire when he alleged the team was shown a photo of Trayvon Martin when being told why hoodies were banned. Martin was famously shot and killed by George Zimmerman, who was acquitted on all charges at trial. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
However, the three-time national champion coach has denied it ever happened, but didn’t deny hoodies were banned in certain settings.
My first team meeting. (True story 2017) This photo was presented to us via PowerPoint to institute our building wide rule of “no hoods” in the building pic.twitter.com/bGdJVZaEVT
— Marcus Williamson (@WW_Marcus) January 2, 2022
Meyer told Jeff Snook the following about the allegations:
Our team rule was no hats or hoodies or sunglasses of any kind but only in team meetings, just so we could see their eyes and make sure they were paying attention and not asleep. We did not, and never would show a picture of Trayvon Martin. My gosh, no. That is absolutely false and you can check with any other player on my teams during that time to confirm what I am saying. Other players know what he is saying is false. I would never do that. He is crossing the line here. It seems people are just piling on now. But that never happened.
I have no idea who is telling the truth, but the fact Meyer pretty much gave people an open invite to ask other players seems to indicate he’s confident he didn’t do anything wrong.
The reality of the situation is that I’m confident if a major college football program pulled this alleged stunt, it’d be all over the news that same day.
As a 17 early enrollee. Urban Meyer told me he’d “ruin my f—- life” if he ever caught me smoking
— Marcus Williamson (@WW_Marcus) January 2, 2022
Can you imagine the outrage that would happen if a head coach used Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie as an example of why players can’t wear them?
That coach would almost certainly be fired on the spot.
I wanna rap bout my career as a young black college athlete at the highest level. As guidance for u go getters coming up. S/O westerville and those city kids chasing
— Marcus Williamson (@WW_Marcus) January 2, 2022
So, while we don’t know the truth, this one simply seems hard to believe, especially with Meyer on record claiming it never happened.