#Florida State’s Mike Norvell makes amends with players after ‘lie’

Mike Norvell, Marvin Wilson
AP; Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

A day after Florida State captain Marvin Wilson said he and his teammates would start boycotting voluntary workouts following misleading quotes from new coach Mike Novell that he spoken to each player individually about the death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests that have followed, a team-wide meeting seems to have restored order.

“Took a stand we got what we wanted & we are moving forward ?!!!” the standout defensive tackle wrote on Instagram. “I appreciate @coachnorvell for encouraging me to use my platform and speak for what me and teammates believe in. Be the change that you need when you was growing up and help build black communities up and take back what is ours.”

Teammate Kevon Glenn backed up Wilson, tweeting: “We love our coach and we are together as a team. FSU football team and coaching staff is fine and working.”

Most importantly, the meeting established some things Wilson, a projected first-round pick, and his teammates wanted to do moving forward. Everyone on the team will be registered to vote, they will take part in fundraisers to help give money to organizations to send African-American kids to college and raise money for poor schools in Tallahassee, Fla.

“Yesterday I took a stand that was not only for me if FSU football, not even for athletes in general, but it was for big George Floyd and black people in general, for our oppression that we’ve been going through for over 400 years,” he said in a video that accompanied his Instagram post. “I want to say a shoutout for Colin Kaepernick for being the first athlete I really saw take a stand for something he thoroughly believed in.”

Norvell got in trouble when The Athletic ran a story quoting him as saying, “We’ve had a lot of open communication with our team, our players and our coaches,” Norvell said. “I went back and forth individually with every player this weekend. And that was something that was important to me because this is a heartbreaking time in our country.”

Wilson responded by saying there were no such conversations, but only a “generated text” that was sent to everybody and said the Seminoles would not be working out anymore. But on Thursday, the conversations did take place, and the protest has been canceled.

Florida State released a statement Thursday afternoon from Novell in which he said he was “proud” of Wilson for speaking up and he should not have used the word “every” to describe his communication of the ongoing issues in America. Norvell did say he had further conversations after the initial mass text with several of his players.

“Once again, I am grateful for the opportunity I was given to speak to our team more in-depth as a result of Marvin being willing to express his feelings,” said Norvell, who is approaching his first season as Florida State coach after coming over from Memphis.