Fox News -- Football players at Arkansas State University were ordered to either remove a Christian cross decal from their helmets or modify it into a mathematical sign after a Jonesboro attorney complained that the image violated the U.S. Constitution.
The cross decal was meant to memorialize former player Markel Owens and former equipment manager Barry Weyer, said athletic director Terry Mohajir. Weyer was killed in a June car crash. Owens was gunned down in Tennessee in January.
Barry Weyer, Sr., told me that the players and coaches voluntarily decided to memorialize his son and Owens.
“The players knew they were both Christians so they decided to use the cross along with their initials,” he said. “They wanted to carry the spirits of Markel and Barry Don onto the field for one more season.”
It was a decision that had the full support of the university’s athletic director.
“I support our students’ expression of their faith,” Mohajir said. “I am 100 percent behind our students and coaches.”
However, the athletic director said he had no choice but to remove the crosses after he received a message from the university’s legal counsel.
“It is my opinion that the crosses must be removed from the helmets,” University counsel Lucinda McDaniel wrote to Mohajir. “While we could argue that the cross with the initials of the fallen student and trainer merely memorialize their passing, the symbol we have authorized to convey that message is a Christian cross.”
According to documents provided to me by Arkansas State, McDaniel gave the football team a choice – they could either remove the cross or modify the decal. And by modify – she meant deface.
“If the bottom of the cross can be cut off so that the symbol is a plus sign (+) there should be no problem,” she wrote. “It is the Christian symbol which has caused the legal objection.”
The team had been wearing the decals for two weeks without any complaints. That changed after last Saturday’s nationally televised game against the Tennessee Volunteers.
Entire column...
Blog author's comments - So a liberal lawyer was upset by the small crosses the players were wearing in memory of a former player and a former equipment manager who both died this year. The lawyer "complained that the image violated the U.S. Constitution." Freedom of expression, whatever happened to it? It seems only to exist within the ranks of liberals, civil rights leaders who constantly stir the pot of racism and the protesters who burn, loot and destroy things.
Obviously football players, coaches and teams are out of control. The AG Eric Holder needs to investigate this immediately, and the government needs to take over and regulate all sports (sarcasm). I am not a particularly religious person but this is a bit over the top. This liberal lawyer has too much time on his hands. And don't anyone say, do or display anything which will upset someone of the Islamic faith, the so called religion of peace.
Forcing the removal of the image from the players' helmets is another example of why our nation is deteriorating. I recently saw another news column where a fire Chief sent four firemen home because they had the gall to put decals of the American flag on their lockers.
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