A law firm wants cross decals back on Arkansas State's helmets.
Red Wolves players had a cross decal on the back of their helmets for the first two games of the season. The cross had the initials of DT Markel Owens and manager Barry Weyer on each side after Owens was shot and killed in an attempted robbery in January and Weyer died in a car crash in June.
However, the school removed the crosses after a complaint following the team's game against Tennessee on September 6. Now, a firm which says it represents an unidentified player who fears punishment, is wanting the crosses back on the helmets.
The Liberty Institute wants the crosses back on the helmets by Wednesday.
“ASU’s actions in defacing the students’ memorial stickers to remove their religious viewpoint is illegal viewpoint discrimination against the students’ free speech,” Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute told Fox News.
But as we said when the school first announced the stickers were being removed from the helmets, this isn't simply a players' rights issue. Since Arkansas State is a public university, the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution is applicable here. It's what the university cited after it had removed the stickers based off the counsel of its lawyers. If the stickers were undoubtedly constitutional, the university would not have taken the action it did after receiving the complaint.
The school should never have used a religious symbol in the first place as a memorial helmet decal. The debate is the same whether it's a cross, six-point star or a Tao symbol. A publicly-funded university can't give off the impression that it is promoting one belief system or another, even if a religious endorsement is clearly not the football team's intent.
And the cross's presence is now causing legal wrangling that wouldn't have existed if the decal was a circle or square with the two sets of initials. Common sense and constitutional awareness should have prevailed before the season began and Owens and Weyer could have been remembered appropriately without a side circus of legal threats.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Law firm that says it represents Arkansas State player wants crosses back on helmets
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