Why Coastal Carolina and other college football teams are unlikely to stage protests

Because college football teams aren’t on the field during the singing or playing of the national anthem prior to games, Coastal Carolina’s players and coaches haven’t had the need for a discussion about a possible pregame protest or display of unity, which NFL teams and players have done in recent weeks.

“I don’t think it will ever be an issue unless a team does decide, ‘Hey, lets go out for the national anthem,’ but I think if they’re doing that they’re probably asking for a little bit of trouble there,” CCU interim head football coach Jamey Chadwell said.

But the topic won’t be ignored by the team.

Chadwell intends to address it in the coming weeks as a subject in a Life After Football discussion. The LAF talks each Thursday are a staple of head coach Joe Moglia’s program.

Topics this year have included North Korea, events in Charlottesville, Va., and budgeting money.

“We will probably in the next couple weeks have one on what’s been going on with the flag and some of those things,” Chadwell said. “We try not to do one right away when something happens because something else always happens. … We want to make sure we’re giving our players as much information as possible so they can form an opinion based off of fact of what believe.”

Besides, the Chanticleers have their plates full as they try to overcome a bad loss and enter Sun Belt Conference play.

“We’ve got plenty to worry about other than the flag and all that. We’re not exactly in a good spot right now,” said graduate student and quarterback Dalton Demos. “I think it’s a little above our pay grade. I don’t think we exactly have that big of a voice. But at the same time I don’t really feel like I have a voice in the situation. I just wish it wasn’t happening. I don’t like to see all the separation in this great sport. It upsets me a little bit.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 7:19 PM with the headline "Why Coastal Carolina and other college football teams are unlikely to stage protests."