Everything Frank Martin said on George Floyd, educating players
It would be easy to take all 1,600 words Frank Martin said Tuesday, whittle them down to about 400 words and package them neatly in a nice, succinct story and call it a day.
But then some of those words lose their meaning when cut, snipped and packaged in a different way than the way Martin discussed them over 40 minutes in a Zoom call with reporters Tuesday.
For that reason, there won't be any of the writer's words below. It'll just be Frank Martin discussing the murder of George Floyd, his conversations with the players about it and what needs to happen next for the country to continue to grow.
Have you had conversations with your players about the Floyd murder and about racism in America?
Martin: “Absolutely. I’ve been doing that my whole career. It’s not something I started last week or two years ago or when the situation in Ferguson (happened). It’s what I grew up seeing. I’ve been battling this with everyone in my neighborhood. There are two kind of races in this country: some people run the 100-yard dash and other people like me run the 100-yard hurdles. It’s what I’ve always said. Some people have obstacles to get to the finish line. Somehow, someway you have to deal with obstacles when you come from certain places or you look a certain way. That exists. I don’t care what anyone says. I’ve lived it; I’ve felt it. I also believe in this country and that’s where my conflict comes. I believe in everything this country stands for. I believe in the progress that is made in this country during my time on this planet, let alone over the last 100 years.
"I’ve got internal conflict all the time because there’s a lot of good but there’s some ugly. I talk to our team about that all the time. The hardest thing with players, especially this age group, is them allowing themselves to let you into their core. That’s the hardest thing to do with kids. It’s hard to do with my children; it’s hard to do with my players. In ’16, we had a conversation that was initiated before President (Donald) Trump even became the republican nominee. It wasn’t about President Trump, but the issues we had because of the killings in Charleston and the situation in Ferguson. That’s where it started.
"Sindarius (Thornwell) is the one that started it and he basically said racism. That’s a hard word. That’s a really, really hard word. It’s just like hate; hate is a really hard word. We sat in that locker room for three hours with Sindarius, Duane Notice, Maik Kotsar as a freshman spoke on the topic even though he’s from Estonia. Those are powerful moments that I continue to have. That was Sindarius as a senior. Sindarius as a freshman would have shoved up and not said a word. That’s the hardest thing to do to get them to allow you into their core so you can better understand them. But you have to have the conversations. If you don’t, you’re failing kids.”
Does it make you angry you have to still have those kinds of conversations?
“I don’t think it makes me angry. I think it’s part of continuing to educate. Here’s something: the guy who’s like third in charge of the City of Miami police department, he and I grew up in the same neighborhood, got in fights with each other, fights with everyone else, did wrong and got in trouble together. We both became teachers together, he became a coach like me and then he chose to become a police officer because he felt that would be a bigger calling for what he was trying to do. He’s one of me. He speaks to me like we’re still 18 years old. I had him speak to our team a couple days ago on Zoom.
"He asked our coaches and our team, ‘What is the second leading cause of police officers getting killed?’ None of us knew. He said, ‘A routine traffic stop.’ That blew me away. That tells me it’s a big responsibility of mine to make all my players; whether they’re white or black—because we can get stopped for an expired tag, we can get stopped for speeding, we can get stopped for reckless driving, we can get stopped for racial profiling—when that police officer stops us, he’s on edge. He knows that is a moment where a majority of police officers get killed, period. We have to learn how to diffuse that moment.
"Do I get mad? I don’t think I get mad. I think it’s our journey. We have to educate, man. We want to listen to one side and sometimes we don’t listen to the other. That’s what creates angry. Anger is when voices go upon deaf ears. I think it’s a duty and a responsibility. The part that’s sad is the racial profiling. Udonis Haslem—I have an unbelievable relationship with and respect for the man he’s become—he said something about the situation where he went to Miami and tried to calm the waters a little bit. He said the badge is not the one with the hate. It’s the soul of the man who has the hate. That man had hate, not the badge. Don’t blame the badge. There are a lot of things that need to be worked on whether it’s police training to stop the racial profiling when it comes to police officers. The reason I’m still here is because police officers took care of the kids in the neighborhood. Without them, we get in trouble.
"There’s a lot more good than bad, I know that to my core. I’ve experienced the ugly, too. I’ve been racial profiled as the driver in the car. I understand. But I’ve been protected and helped by police officers so many more times. We have to stand up and fix the problems, but don’t get this twisted: I’m madly in love with the country and what that badge stands for with the majority of police officers.”
What are the emotions like from the players on your team in your talks with them?
“I’m trying to get them to speak. We have a Zoom call (Wednesday) and I’m going to tell them, ‘You guys are so quiet on our zoom call yet you’re on social media re-tweeting and sending these subliminal messages. Awesome. Share them with me, man. Share them with me so I can help. You can’t give me a blank stare.’ That’s the part that I can only explain to you the journey I’ve been on.
"I was a grown man and Anthony grant, the head coach at Dayton, we’ve been best friends forever. I’d never knew, until we were both successful men, some of the fears he lived with. We were together every day. I started learning, cause I know what he’s about. I know what his family’s about. I know what he’s about to his core. He’s got nothing but love for people, but there are certain fears I learned from him when we were both grown men. It’s important we communicate those things to the people that are around us so we can understand one another. That’s the biggest deal. I get the frustration part. I used to be a have-not. I was a have-not for the majority of my life.
"Because I’m a head coach, everyone things I’m a have. the only thing we have in common, and it’s what I’m trying to tell players, the people that come from the have not place, the only reason you get labeled as a have is either you’re athletically gifted, you have an unbelievable ability to make people laugh, you’re a great singer or performer—not actor—or you go to college, like the majority of actors do and you get an education and learn to coexist and express yourself and respect others and then they respect you. Then you move forward and then you get a seat at the table. Those are the types of conversations I have with players to make them understand. That’s where my analogy of the race comes from. Some people run the race without anything in front of them and some of us have to get over, under and through objects to get to the finish line. It’s part of it.
"It’s better now than it was 20 years ago. It’s better than it was 20 years ago. It’s better now than it was five years ago when everything happened in Ferguson. The number of issues with police officers and especially black males that number continues to go down because police departments are working on education. Unfortunately we’re still close to the bad that there’s still folks that have that hatred in them. We have to keep trying to figure out a way to eradicate that and drown that. That’s what I try to tell the players. That’s the conversation I try to create with them.”
How important is it to use your platform to discuss these kinds of situations?
“In team sports, how much we need each other to find success together we don’t look at each other as black, white, Hispanic. We learn to speak each other’s slang. We learn to respect each other for each other’s ways because we’re trying to coexist and succeed together. I think as coaches, I’m not big on forcing people to do something they’re not comfortable doing. Whatever it is you think you need to do—I’m comfortable doing this, I need to eliminate these obstacles…I’m willing to listen to others and see what they think and what offends them and what they think they know.
"I thought I knew everything about Anthony Grant and I didn’t know some of his fears until we’re grown men. It wasn’t until he told me about it and made me understands certain things. I think as a leader of young, college kids especially in our sport where a good percentage are African Americans, it’s important we educate our players and then they know we’re with them and we’re here to help them, guide them and continue to create ways to find success. Our duty is to create openings and make that path easier for the next one. That’s what I try to do. Hopefully I try to do it and other coaches are comfortable doing it, it opens the door for more coaches to step up and speak on this topic. The players need us to help them. They need us to guide them. They need us to help give their families a voice.”
