Last week during the Rose Bowl, Ohio State defensive back Marcus Williamson started tweeting that he had retired from the team. He then went on to make allegations about the Ohio State coaching staff and the way they treated him and other black players.
Specifically, he called our former head coach Urban Meyer and said that the coaches once used a photo of Trayvon Martin in a PowerPoint presentation to drive home a “no hoods” policy. Martin infamously was killed during an incident that started when he was seen wearing a hoodie and assumed to be some kind of criminal.
My first team meeting. (True story 2017) This photo was presented to us via PowerPoint to institute our building wide rule of “no hoods” in the building pic.twitter.com/bGdJVZaEVT
— MARS (@WW_Marcus) January 2, 2022
Via author Jeff Snook, who has written several books about Ohio State, Meyer said that while there was a team rule against hats, hoodies, and sunglasses in team meetings, he adamantly denied using a photo of Martin.
“We did not, and never would show a picture of Trayvon Martin,” said Meyer. “My gosh, no. That is absolutely false and you can check with any other player on my teams during that time to confirm what I am saying. Other players know what he is saying is false. I would never do that. He is crossing the line here. It seems people are just piling on now. But that never happened.”
However, according to a report from the Columbus Dispatch, a photo of Martin was indeed used by support staff in a freshman orientation presentation but Meyer was not involved with it.
Urban Meyer confirms OSU support staffer used Trayvon Martin 'hoodie" photo during freshman orientation. "I wasn't there," Meyer said. https://t.co/hB2k0gEp1A via @DispatchAlerts
— Rob Oller (@rollerCD) January 4, 2022
The truth was revealed by former Ohio State safety Tyvis Powell, who says he was told the photo was used as part of a freshman orientation meeting to confirm a “no hoods” rule in the building. According to Powell, the person who created the presentation was later told it was offensive and apologized.
The players I’ve talked to said the person in charge was truly uneducated on that situation & really didn’t have any idea the story behind the image. So Marcus isn’t telling a lie about that. It was something that was handled in private. I still stand on my racial stance of OSU
— Tyvis Powell (@1Tyvis) January 3, 2022
The Dispatch’s Rob Oller spoke with Meyer after the head coach was informed of the new information.
“I didn’t know about it until one hour ago, until after talking to (Powell),” Meyer said on Tuesday. “I wasn’t there (in the meeting). None of the coaches were present. It was a support staffer who was in error and apologized.”
Oller also spoke with Powell, who wanted to make sure that people knew Williamson wasn’t lying in his initial thread but also clear up Meyer’s involvement, or lack thereof.
“Marcus Williamson was not lying about what he said,” said Powell. “All of us former players do not want to discredit him by saying (the Martin photo) did not happen.
“From my own experience, I can say nothing racial or racist was ever going on during my time.”
Meyer, who was fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars a few weeks ago just 13 games into his first season with the NFL franchise, has made a year out of trying to evade responsibility for things that happened on his watch. However, in this instance, it does appear that while there was a terrible error in judgment made by someone at Ohio State, it wasn’t him.
