"We want to play."
As the Fall 2020 college football season hangs in the balance, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence ended a tweet with those four words Sunday night and it quickly transformed into a movement.
“It’s great to see somebody stand up and lead on behalf of the student athletes,” former Georgia punter Drew Butler said. “Seeing Trevor Lawrence, who is probably one of, if not the, best college football players in America stand up and rally the troops and say guys listen to what we’re saying, we’re the ones playing and we want to play.”
Later, in a tweet, Lawrence posted a statement attributed to representatives of the players of the Power Five conferences calling on the conferences to take certain actions to make football in the fall feasible.
Most notably, the players called for a college football players association.
“We’re talking about players becoming employees,” said former Georgia quarterback Hutson Mason.
“There’s a lot of unintended consequences that come with that, but I think if it’s led by smart people, the right people, people that understand how collegiate finances work and what you’re getting into when you decide to unionize, then yeah I think it can work," Mason added.
President Trump quote tweeted Lawrence’s post and added “the student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled #WeWantToPlay.”