If you were to distill this moment in American history into one single video to preserve it for future generations, the video below might be a good candidate.
As high school football programs across the country gather for workouts in for the first time in three months, you can see the Klein Oak (Texas) Panthers standing roughly six feet apart, with masks covering each and every one of their faces.
As they stand, still as statues, head coach Jason Glenn roams the field, pledging and pleading with his team that the differences among them will unit them as one, not divide the team into fractions.
He doesn’t mention the name George Floyd, but he doesn’t have to.
“Your skin color, your race, your religion, that won’t divide us,” Glenn says. “We’re not doing that. We won’t allow it.”
Glenn personally pledges to serve as an ally for anyone working through racial conflict in their lives. “If you’ve got somebody at home that’s teaching you about hating because of the color of their skin, come talk to me. I’ll help,” he says. “I want to be part of the solution of making everybody come together.”
Perhaps the best moment of the 7-minute video, though, predates our current moment. “What is this program about?” Glenn asks his players. “To raise great young men,” the players answer in unison. The call-and-response repeats four times; it’s clear Glenn has made his players know that the cornerstone of the entire program — what the whole thing is about — is about turning them into great young men, end of sentence.
The whole video is worth a watch. Check it out.
