Petition calls for Minnesota football coach Tracy Claeys to be fired

Last week, the Minnesota football team briefly decided that it would boycott all football related activities as a result of what it felt was a suspension without due process for ten of its teammates following a Title IX investigation.

The team threatened to sit out its bowl game if the suspended players were not reinstated after a criminal investigation failed to yield any charges or arrests.

In response to the team deciding to boycott, coach Tracy Claeys tweeted: “Have never been more proud of our kids. I respect their rights snf support their effort to make a better world!”

The boycott was called off after the team met its first wall of opposition and will play in tomorrow’s bowl game against Washington State. However, the saga doesn’t end there. A petition is being circulated that calls for Claeys to be fired from his post as head coach due to the way he reacted to the incident.

The petition, available at MoveOn.com , currently has 481 signatures and the number is rising.

The signees feel Claeys was not supportive or sensitive to the victim of the alleged assault and by saying he was “proud” of his players to call for their teammates reinstatement, he chose the wrong side.

Following the incident, Claeys acknowledged that he could have chosen his words more carefully and donated $50,000 to support the victims of sexual assault. Claeys will coach the team at its bowl game, but if this petition is able to continue to gain traction, the university might be put in a very awkward situation.

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Ohio State football team travels to Fiesta Bowl in luxury
Ohio State football team travels to Fiesta Bowl in luxury