Penn State football’s PJ Mustipher is hoping team meeting can spark permanent change in the country
After Penn State football player Aeneas Hawkins described on social media an incident when he was degraded by a man at a gas station for being black in late May, teammate P.J. Mustipher was quick to show his support for his fellow defensive tackle.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mustipher hesitated before he making a statement about the nature of the incident and how frequently incidents like it occur, as if the junior defensive lineman came to a realization about what he was saying as he said it.
“That’s just what happens in America,” Mustipher said during the Tuesday afternoon video conference. “(That’s) the sad part.”
The junior defensive tackle was proud of how his teammate handled the situation and moved forward, but it showed how often black people in the United States deal with these types of issues, he said, and they can happen to anyone.
“It can happen to everyone,” Mustipher said. “(It doesn’t) matter if you’re a Penn State football player. It happens to everyone. Us seeing that, and him seeing that, it really opened our eyes and allowed us to grow and allowed us to talk about it.”
Mustipher didn’t spend much time discussing football during the video conference. The topic of conversation centered around police brutality and the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes while Floyd begged for him to stop and allow him to breathe. Chauvin didn’t relent until two minutes after another officer couldn’t find Floyd’s pulse.
Floyd’s death sparked protests across the country as citizens show their outrage with systemic racial inequality in the United States. One of those protests took place in State College Sunday afternoon, where Mustipher’s teammate, offensive guard C.J. Thorpe, spoke to the crowd about being black in the United States.
Mustipher was proud to see Thorpe taking a stand and using his voice during the protest.
“CJ’s speech was beautiful,” he said. “CJ is one of the veterans of the locker room. ... If guys in the locker room across the country, and Penn State football, can start this conversation and lead this conversation, then I think change can happen everywhere.”
Thorpe and all of the other Penn State football players had a chance to speak their mind on the issues at hand over the weekend when Penn State head coach James Franklin opened the floor to his team and allowed them to speak in a team meeting through a video conference.
Mustipher said Franklin’s ability to let his players speak their mind are part of what make him an excellent leader.
“What he’s done that’s been important for us, he’s taken a step back and allowed us to speak our minds,” he said. “We had a discussion where he allowed anyone to speak if they wanted to. He’s reaching out to guys and we’re having these conversations. I think that’s what’s so important about Coach Franklin. He’s going to love us ... He’s always going to be there for us ... Coach Franklin has never changed. He loves and cares for each one of us.”
The meeting had an impact on the junior defensive tackle, who couldn’t pick out one moment that stood out.
“As much as I do want to give you one statement that was impactful,” he said when asked what stood out, “it wasn’t just one. It was the many different ones that you heard. There were many people in that meeting, it wasn’t just football players and coaches, it was the staff. It included Caucasian women, African American men, white men, it included so many different people and the floor was so open. ... People were able to voice what they felt. It was just a beautiful thing to see.”
Mustipher wants that meeting, and his teammates, to be a catalyst for change. He wants the discussion had by those who occupy the Penn State locker room to extend beyond that group. He’s hopeful his teammates and coaches can carry their message out into the community and make real change happen.
He knows this was a first step, but acknowledged there has to be more steps taken in order to facilitate that change.
“I don’t want this to be a one week or a one month thing,” Mustipher said. “I want this thing to be all year-round. I want us to be talking about it. I want us to be doing something in the community. What can we do to change things? I want us to never forget this feeling that we have right now. ... It sucks that we have to go through this, but it’s important that we remember this feeling we’re having and we continue to move forward as a country.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 5:31 PM.
