Why Emmitt Smith’s voice is powerful in wake of DEI ban

One minute, football legend Emmitt Smith is chucking beers with fellow Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. The next minute, he’s a defender of diversity, equity and inclusion.

When the University of Florida eliminated its DEI office, largely due to a law signed in 2023 by Gov. Ron DeSantis that banned state universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Smith responded with harsh criticism.

“I’m utterly disgusted by UF’s decision and the precedent that it sets,” Smith posted Sunday afternoon in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We cannot continue to believe and trust that a team of leaders all made up of the same background will make the right decision when it comes to equality and diversity. History has already proven that is not the case.”

Someone might see Smith’s Hall of Fame football career and his penchant for being a pitchman and think that he wouldn’t have anything to say about pressing civil rights issues. Such a narrative couldn’t be further from the truth. In the face of stern challenges against DEI programs at his alma mater and with a profound sense of history stabilizing him, Smith offered a compelling rebuke of the policies inspired by politicians such as DeSantis.

Smith’s stand might seem unfathomable in this day and age where athletes, current and former, care so much about public perception – and marketing dollars. And yet, such commentaries aren’t just the words of a past era that included baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson and Curt Flood, whose lawsuit against the MLB led to free agency. Similar statements were prevalent just over three years ago, when the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police galvanized the civil rights demands of a generation.

But why Smith? Why the NFL’s all-time leading rusher? Smith’s reasons are baked into his being.

Smith was born in 1969 in Pensacola, Florida – the same year that the town’s all-white high school, Escambia, was desegregated at the order of the federal government. Escambia High School had a Confederate soldier as a mascot, flew the Rebel flag and had “Dixie” as the school song. Protests by Black students at a football game and concerned citizens led to a federal ruling in 1973 that barred the use of the Confederate symbols and changed the mascot to the Raiders, The school board appealed the ruling in 1974 and in 1975, a federal appeals court overturned the injunction and put the school board in charge of the matter.

After students voted to keep the Raiders name for the mascot, a violent riot at the school on Feb. 5, 1976, resulted, which The New York Times described in March 1976:

“Years of racial animosity in this Florida panhandle city have erupted into violence in recent weeks on the issue of whether athletic teams at a local high school will be called the Rebels or the Raiders. The controversy over the name, simmering for several years in and out of court, caused a riot at Escambia County High School Feb. 5. This afternoon, 120 Ku Klux Klansmen in full regalia, but with faces uncovered in accordance with law, paraded through the streets of Milton, a small town about 20 miles east of here. They had come into town in an 80‐vehicle caravan from outside Pensacola and called the march an “organizational effort.” Three Klan leaders from Alabama, Georgia and Florida attended the rally, which drew 450 persons. Four students were hit by gunfire in the school riot, 26 others were injured and $5,000 damage was done to the school during four hours of fighting, rock‐throwing and smashing of windows, trophy cases and other school property.”

Smith graduated from Escambia just over a decade later, in 1987.

American history, however joyous or calamitous, is never too far away from the present. That’s why Smith’s criticism of his alma mater, the University of Florida, carries so much weight. It also helps, of course, that he’s the NFL’s all-time leading rusher.

“Instead of showing courage and leadership, we continue to fail based on systemic issues and with this decision, UF has conformed to the political pressures of today’s time,” Smith noted in his statement. 

Birmingham, Alabama, mayor Randall Woodfin, in his criticism of a proposed anti-DEI bill in the state, recalled the sordid segregationist history of the University of Alabama. Further, he said if such legislation passed, he would encourage Black athletes and parents “to attend other institutions outside of the state where diversity and inclusion are prioritized.”

“Although I’m the biggest Bama fan, I have no problem organizing Black parents and athletes to attend other institutions outside of the state where diversity and inclusion are prioritized,” Woodfin posted last month on X. “If supporting inclusion becomes illegal in this state, hell, you might as well stand in front of the school door like Governor Wallace. Mannnn it’s Black History Month. Y’all could have at least waited until March 1.”

Let some folks tell it, the most important goal line stand in Alabama history was then-Gov. George Wallace’s segregationist stance in the schoolhouse door, where he symbolically stood to block two Black students. And yet, like much of Wallace’s career, it was political posturing, and the students passed through.

All of this uncertainty and unrest doesn’t make life easier for college athletes, who are in the midst of a rapidly changing landscape because of the NCAA and name, image and likeness. On the one hand, it is interesting to see that NIL is on the cusp of rapid expansion after an injunction effectively handcuffed the NCAA’s power to punish athletes (and universities). At the same time, it is troublesome to think that athletes are left to the devices of institutions that do not prioritize DEI.

It’s also worth mentioning that we should be clear about terms like DEI and NIL, particularly since folks want to make them cut-and-dried. Folks hear “NIL” and think that all college athletes are making money. If this were the case, student-athletes would not take the first $600 that comes their way. Thanks, EA Sports. Folks hear “DEI” and dismiss the intent of diversity and equity initiatives, even as there is evidence that DEI is not as pro-Black as one might think.

The solution for college athletes might be similar to GameStop’s motto – “power to the players.” Just this week on March 5, basketball players at Dartmouth voted to join a local union, which marked the first time athletes took public action as employees.

We should be working to support college athletes on all fronts, whether financially or socially. What’s clear is that they are often pawns at the expense of billion-dollar interests on campus, whether on or off the playing field. We should not only unlock their labor potential, but their understanding of history and how it relates to the present.

Or, as Smith put it to close his compelling commentary: “And to those who think it’s not your problem and stay on the sidelines and say nothing, you are complicit in supporting systemic issues.”