Darien Rencher: "Playing Gives Us Leverage To Create More Change"
Change is coming. It's inevitable.
Although Clemson running back Darien Rencher knows that if he and his teammates aren't allowed to play this season, any leverage they have to create that change takes a temporary hit.
College football players across the country have already started organizing. They are doing so in a highly effective manner, as players have found their voices and are coming together to make sure those voices are being heard.
Rencher has been one of the player's at the forefront of this movement. Along with teammate Trevor Lawrence, Rencher helped put together a late Sunday night Zoom call between player representatives from each Power-5 conference to discuss a multitude of topics surrounding the upcoming season, including the eventual formation of a player's association.
Rencher is still fully aware of the fact that he is a college athlete, and says what they are talking about isn't the formation of a new player's union, so to speak. While he does think that some form of compensation should be discussed at some point in the future, right now they are just focused on the matter at hand.
"I'm definitely aware, like I'm a college athlete," Rencher said. "I'm all for some of the things that could be beneficial to more athletes down the road. I think like compensation, and all that stuff, I think there's a time and a place, but I do know if we don't play there's gonna be nothing to get compensated for."
While he may play a reserve role on the field, in the locker room Rencher is anything but. The former walk-on and fifth year senior has now grown into one of the teams most vocal leaders in a time when leadership is needed most, and he badly wants his final season.
"I think just in order to change this game of college football, I think we need to play it again first," Rencher said. "Thing is, if we play the game, we can come to the table with more. The first point was to play."
While the ultimate goal is to get more for the players down the line, right now the players all share one common goal to play. Rencher knows that if they don't, their platform just isn't the same, and it's possible their voices aren't quite as loud.
"Everything's for players to get more than players have in the past," Rencher said. "I think it's in due time for some of that stuff but I think there needs to be an order to it. Ultimately, I feel like that, the most thing we rallied around was wanting to play.
"I think if we play, like we've seen in other sports like the NBA, we can use our voices to stand up. If we don't play, we don't have any leverage to speak upon things that can change. I think by playing it gives us the leverage to then create more change."
