Virginia Tech Football Players Voice Support of #WeWantToPlay Movement

Well it's a little before 5:00 ET on Monday, August 10th, and there's still absolutely zero clarity around what's going to happen with the college football season.

First there were conference schedules released. Then there was a cancelation of football from the MAC conference for the fall season, followed by rumors swirling of Power Five conferences potentially following suit.

And now, amidst all of the rumors and uncertainty, there's a player-led movement.

#WeWantToPlay

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who is one of the best players in the sport, has been a catalyst spearheading this movement to save the college football season from the perceived brink. He first brought the statement to social media late on Sunday night, and players from other conferences - united as one - followed his lead.

Due to laws and regulations, this can't be legally referred to as a players' union, but this may be the start of the closest thing we've seen to it in college athletics.

The players want a seat at the table, and they want the option put in their hands - to play, or not to play?

As I wrote this morning, this entire discussion to potentially cancel the season is an astonishing pivot by Power Five conference leaders, and a true case study of totally incompetent leadership.

If it's about player safety, why wasn't football canceled last month when COVID-19 outbreaks raged through Florida, California, Texas, and Arizona?

If it's about player safety, why were there schedule releases?

And if it was really about player safety, why the sudden pivot to cancel the season once the players wanted their voices to be heard?

This started out as something related to the COVID pandemic, and now it's turned into something much, much different.

It's political as it's ever been, and quite frankly, we're all worse off for it.

Virginia Tech's players want to play football this fall, and several have taken to social media to directly voice their support of Trevor Lawrence and their college football counterparts.

Junior wide receiver Tre Turner, who is one of Tech's unquestioned team leaders, was the first to tweet his support of the movement. 

Since then, several other players have followed suit, including running back Marco Lee, offensive lineman Austin Cannon, running back Khalil Herbert, offensive lineman Brock Hoffman, defensive end Justus Reed, offensive lineman Jesse Hanson, and defensive ends Zion DeBose and Justin Beadles.

While these are the names who have openly voiced support thus far on social media, there will likely be more.

Who's to say what comes next in college football, but Monday is only the start of what should be a wild week across the sport.