A college football coach posted a note to his door declaring all lives matter in the eyes of Jesus before leaving his coaching position on Tuesday.
“All Lives Matter to Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ,” said the sheet of paper taped to the office door of Illinois State University offensive coordinator Kurt Beathard.
Mr. Beathard and the school have not publicly commented on the circumstances of the coach’s departure, but reporting from The Pantagraph suggests controversy concerning activist group Black Lives Matter.
The report notes that three unnamed sources close to the football program told The Pantagraph that a “Black Lives Matter” poster in the Illinois State locker room was recently taken down.
Black Live Matter is a radical anti-cop activist group that has explicitly called for the defunding of police departments nationwide and seeks to “disrupt” the nuclear family. Such declarations were clearly laid out on the group’s “What We Believe” page but were recently scrubbed, as noted by The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh.
Beathard emphatically stated that he did not remove the BLM poster from inside the locker room but noted that he did remove material posted to his office door.
“That locker room crap is wrong,” the coach told The Pantagraph. “I took the sign down somebody put on my door. That’s it. I didn’t take anything off that wasn’t put on my door. I wrote the message.”
Earlier in the season, the phrase “All Redbird Lives Matter” was apparently used by athletic director Larry Lyons during a video conference with Illinois State athletes, whose mascot is Reggie Redbird.
According to The Pantagraph, the remark — a play off the phrase “Black Lives Matter — triggered some players to temporarily boycott practices, team meetings, and workouts. There was also an “Athletics March for Black Voices” protest held earlier this month.
“We cannot go to the store for candy without worrying for our lives. Rest in peace Trayvon Martin,” said student-athlete Kimathi Johnson during the protest. “We cannot sleep without worrying for our lives. Rest in peace Breonna Taylor. We cannot breathe and cry for help without someone telling us we’re asking for too much. Rest in peace George Floyd. I see those names and I feel their fear for myself, for my family, for my brother and my sister every day.”
“We’re expected to keep moving on in silence,” he continued. “Right now, for the first time in my career at ISU, I see hope. I see people out here today who can make a change in the systems of athletics, in the systems in ISU and the systems of America that allow and promote racism in our country. We can make a change, but only if we stand together … only if we are ready to be uncomfortable when talking to each other.”
Moreover, the university announced Wednesday via a press release that Ghaali Muhammad-Lankford and C.J. Irvin would serve as co-offensive coordinators, according to The Pantagraph, adding, “Andy Belluomini has been added to the ISU coaching staff to assume the quarterbacks coach position previously held by Beathard.”