Coach O says he will not tolerate racism

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Over the last few days, Ed Orgeron’s phone buzzed more than normal. For Orgeron, one of the nation’s elite college football recruiters and the head coach of the reigning national champion LSU Tigers, an active phone isn’t something new. But this was different. Messages flooded in from his former players reacting to a nationwide upheaval over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died May 25 while pinned between concrete and the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

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“My players and former players are hurting, and they let me know they’re hurting,” Orgeron says in an interview Tuesday with Sports Illustrated. “When they’re hurting, it hurts me. I love all my players like they were my own. I know some are hurting right now, and I totally support them. I will not tolerate racism, and they know it.”

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On Tuesday, in his first meeting with the team since the COVID-19 pandemic suspended on-campus activities, the coach addressed the movement with his players before he spoke to SI. Orgeron wished to first deliver a message to his team, he says, before giving one to the general public. “I told them my feelings, which stays in house, but they know I will not tolerate racism,” he says. “Everybody has a right to voice their opinion. We’re not going to stop that. I told them to be careful.”

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