Randy Wade, the father of Ohio State corner Shaun Wade, held a protest Friday at the Big Ten in Rosemont, Illinois, hoping to give the players’ parents a voice in resolving the conference to postpone the fall football season.
Chris Bumbaca of USA Today reported the news and noted that the parents of players in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin attended the event, even though Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and his people are running remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wade flew from his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, to Chicago rule for the occasion and began a “Play” chant:
Randy Wade and other Big Ten parents launch the show “Let’s Play!” program to sing outdoors in the league office. https://t.co/kw6ixhkWcc
Dan Hope of Eleven Warriors published an interview with Wade in which he said “I even think it’s great” and thanked those who showed up even though it’s a day’s work.
Randy Wade on how he thinks this morning’s protest took place. He also spoke to the crowd for a few minutes: full video of this upcoming speech. https://t.co/vlF3ljoXNi
“The explanation for why we’re here is because we need to have conversations,” Wade said, through Bumbaca. “It’s simple. We need to play in the fall, but no matter what the fall is, we need to have conversations in the spring.”
That happens after Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields made a request asking the Big Ten to fix the season.
On Friday, nearly another 300,000 people signed the petition.
Despite the efforts of players and parents, the Big Ten postponed all autumn sports, adding football, due to the pandemic. The Pac-12 did the same, acc, Big 12 and SEC still plan to have the football season in the fall.
Warren, whose son will play for the state of Mississippi this year despite the pandemic, reaffirmed the conference’s resolution in an open letter published Wednesday.