If his son was comfortable signing a liability waiver to play — the NCAA as of now won’t allow players to sign them — Benhart said he’d be comfortable, as well.
“If Bryce came to me and said ‘Dad, I don’t feel safe, I’ve seen this, I’ve seen that,’ I would back off,” Gene Benhart said.
“One of the things we can do — a small thing — is write a letter and get it sent to the Big Ten,” Glen Snodgrass said. “At least we feel like we’re helping the situation as much as we possibly can. I think there are a lot of parents who have felt that.”
Bryce’s sentiments, Gene said, have been just the opposite. Not a big talker or user of social media, Bryce sent out his first tweet in more than 18 months Monday. It was a picture of him in a Husker jersey with the hashtag #WeWantToPlay.
“When Bryce says something, better pay attention, because he’s not going to say it again,” Gene said.
Will the letters from parents work? The Big Ten, in theory, could reverse its decision. But, even from Nebraska’s perspective, it seems final.
Snodgrass thinks it’s important Husker parents’ collective voice is heard the way coach Scott Frost spoke up for the sport and his team Monday in a press conference. Snodgrass said he watched Frost, Chief of Staff Gerrod Lambrecht and NU assistants do everything they could to get players back to town and through workouts safely.
“Coach Frost had the guts to stick his neck out there and fight for his team, when even all these other coaches, who came out days later, weren’t willing to do that,” Snodgrass said. “He showed leadership. Coach Frost had the guts to put it out there. I couldn’t have been more proud of the way he handled it, and I think there were a lot of parents — a lot of people in this state — that listened to that press conference and thought ‘that’s just exactly how I’m thinking.’
