The Florida Gators have a big time football game on the horizon. With the team traveling to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas to take on the Michigan Wolverines on Sept. 2, laser focus is the name of the game.
But that doesn’t mean coach Jim McElwain doesn’t have a minute to address a pressing issue that will affect his campus directly. Speaking with SEC Country, McElwain discussed the “Unite the Right” groups plans to hold a rally on the campus of the University of Florida.
Coach McElwain says he understands their right of free speech, but doesn’t have to like the way they are exercising it.
“I think first and foremost, any extremist group — I don’t care, the nationalists, whatever they’re called — is unacceptable,” McElwain said. “It’s just not what we believe in here. And yet, I also understand freedom of speech.
“I mean, that’s what really our country was kind of founded on, right? But we obviously do not in any way believe in any of their views, and I think our team understands that.”
The social and political issues in the country have become so omnipresent over the past week that it has become impossible for anyone with any level of profile not address them.
McElwain, whose previous claim to fame was deny a photo of a naked man humping a shark wasn’t him, was wise to speak out and set the tone for his team and the school in which he is a figurehead.
The Gators will be happy to see the rally come and go with no injuries or pertinent news coverage. They’ve got a football game to think about, and McElwain and his group of footballers would do well without all the distraction.
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