Notre Dame Football: Irish Players Join the #WeWantToPlay Movement

Late in the evening on Sunday, August 9th, a group of current college football players posted on social media using the hashtag #WeWantToPlay. Among that group of players were some notable members of the Notre Dame football team.

A Twitter hashtag grabbed the attention of college football media members and fans late Sunday night. The hashtag contained a clear and simple statement: #WeWantToPlay.

Mounting concerns about the current coronavirus pandemic have led many to believe that the power five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Pac-12) will not play college football in the fall of 2020.

Notre Dame, one of the few independent teams in college football, has been incorporated into the ACC for the upcoming season. Therefore, the Irish will need to await the final decision from the conference to learn when or if they will be playing football during this academic year.

It’s hard to believe that we have made it to August with so much uncertainty surrounding the college football season.

Conference commissioners and university presidents have been deliberating the appropriate next steps for the past few months. In July, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 were the first to move to conference-only schedules. The ACC, Big 12, and SEC followed suit shortly after that.

With the new safety protocols and conference-only schedules in place, the stage seemed set for the 2020 college football season. Yes, it was going to be weird, but at least it would happen.

Then, this past weekend, rumors started swirling that the Big Ten was going to cancel their fall season and play football in the spring. There were also rumors that the Pac-12 was considering doing the same.

Apparently, all of the conference guidelines and schedule reconstruction were just an elaborate ruse to buy these decision-makers more time to gather information and assess the current situation.

That’s frustrating to me as a fan, but even more frustrating to the college football players around the country who have gone through summer workouts and practices in preparation for a fall season. Those players voiced those frustrations on Sunday night.

It started with the biggest star in the sport, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. He first outlined his belief that players would still face the same amount risk of contracting COVID-19 if the season were cancelled.

Then, he posted a custom-made graphic with the hashtag #WeWantToPlay. The graphic included the logos of each of the power five conferences and five demands for the upcoming season.

Lawrence was not alone. In fact, this was a coordinated effort that began on a Zoom call with about a dozen college football players. The group met, discussed their stance, finalized their message, made the graphic, and sent it out to world.

It was not long before some notable Notre Dame football players joined the movement by tweeting out the hashtag #WeWantToPlay.

Quarterback Ian Book, running back Jafar Armstrong, defensive end Daelin Hayes, defensive back Houston Griffith, and graduate-transfers Nick McCloud and Bennet Skowronek have all tweeted out the hashtag. I’m sure some more of their teammates will do the same.

At this point, it feels like major college football news or rumors are breaking every day. Even with all this news, we still do not have a definitive answer to the question: will we see college football this fall?

These next couple of weeks should bring some clarity. After all, we are running out of time.

The first FBS college football games are scheduled to take place Labor Day Weekend. Notre Dame’s first game is scheduled to take place the weekend after that, when they will *hopefully* play Duke in South Bend on September 12th.