How the SAE Scandal United the Oklahoma Football Team
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — From the outside, all we saw were the pictures on TV: Oklahoma football players, and even coach Bob Stoops, missing spring practices and marching arm-in-arm in protest over a racist song that had been sung by SAE frat house members and captured on a cell phone.
From the inside, it wasn't that simple. It wasn't that the united front was a lie for cameras. The united front was true enough, but there was a process behind it. There was hard work, tears, sleepless nights, yelling, doubts and fear behind it. There was some dissension behind it.
It started with some angry players, particularly linebacker Eric Striker, wanting to take action. Others said they weren't there for social causes. Coaches said they needed to get to know their players on the practice field.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
"It first started off with some people like, 'Man, I don't know if I want to do this,' and coaches saying, 'Man, we've got to start getting ready to compete for the college playoff,'" defensive end Charles Tapper said. "And we were like, 'No, this is more important. If this is not more important than football, what is?' Once they understood where we were coming from, that's where the brotherhood started.
"They were all there, all trying to get the better for the team, get the better for the university, get the better for the world."
Bleacher Report spoke with several Sooners players this week, leading up to their Orange Bowl game against Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinals, and they made it clear how much emotion there was behind their decisions. It's also clear that while their goal was to improve the world, not the team, the result was that the team did benefit.
| 2015 | 11-1 | Orange Bowl-TBD |
| 2014 | 8-5 | Russell Athletic Bowl-L |
| 2013 | 11-2 | Sugar Bowl-W |
| 2012 | 10-3 | Cotton Bowl-L |
| 2011 | 10-3 | Insight Bowl-W |
| 2010 | 12-2 | Fiesta Bowl-W |
| 2009 | 8-5 | Sun Bowl-W |
| 2008 | 12-2 | BCS Championship-L |
| 2007 | 11-3 | Fiesta Bowl-L |
| 2006 | 11-3 | Fiesta Bowl-L |
| 2005 | 8-4 | Holiday Bowl-W |
| 2004 | 12-1 | Orange Bowl-L |
| 2003 | 12-2 | Sugar Bowl-L |
| 2002 | 12-2 | Rose Bowl-W |
| 2001 | 11-2 | Cotton Bowl-W |
| 2000 | 13-0 | Orange Bowl-W |
| 1999 | 7-5 | Independence Bowl-L |
It's no coincidence that Oklahoma, a team that had been slipping the past few years and was blown out by Clemson in a bowl game last year, is now two wins away from being the national champion—starting with another game against Clemson. Something grew from the hard work and the tears. The team grew.
Part of their victories on the field is the result of what happened around the SAE mess in the spring.
After the racist song went viral, linebacker Dominique Alexander said, the team met together for six straight days, hours each day, to express their feelings and try to figure out what to do.
"We didn't sleep," Tapper said. "We got to understand that this isn't something that's just going to get brushed over. We've got to go talk to the coach, got to…whatever we do is going to be a powerful thing in life. The whole team had to be willing to do it. None of us are going to play until things are solved."
Move back to Dec. 29, 2014, a year ago Tuesday. Oklahoma trailed Clemson 27-0 at halftime. How bad was it? Put it this way: At some point along the way, according to Yahoo Sports' Nick Bromberg, the Oklahoma County Sheriff felt the need to tweet this to OU fans watching the game on TV:
"#Sooner fans who could blame you for having a drink or 4 watching this game up 'til now? Just don't drive after drinking. #BoomerSooner"
The Sooners had fallen apart and given up, possibly from the start. They lost 40-6 to finish the season with an 8-5 record. At Oklahoma, they expect national championships. There was talk about whether Stoops had stayed too long, about whether he could get the team back on track.
"We had a team meeting the first day we were back," cornerback Zack Sanchez said. "The leadership group had already installed some rules. Just change the locker room because it was getting bad. Different rules. Disciplinary things. It wasn't going to come from the coaches anymore; it was going to come from the guys in the locker room.
"Just the culture, it was a little selfish. It came from the older guys, and that's not something the younger guys needed to be seeing. It was going to be about the team, not one person."
Tapper said that when the team was invited to the Russell Champs Bowl, several of the older players just wanted to go home and get the season over with.
It showed.
So the players decided to create a bond to help them win football games in 2015. A friendship. A brotherhood. Of course, you can't simply decide something like that. You can set up rules of behavior and agree to live by them and tolerate each other. But a brotherhood is something in your heart.
Then on March 7, SAE members at Oklahoma were filmed singing a song that included "There will never be a n----r in SAE." The song went on to include a line about hanging from a tree.
Striker became the face of the football team's reaction with an f-bomb laced Snapchat and emotional tweets. He says he did it from a sense of social responsibility. He also rallied the players.
Tapper said that while the players decided they wanted to hold a vigil on campus, the new assistant coaches wanted to practice. And then, he said, the coaches started coming to the players' meetings and eventually learned "where we were coming from."
"Then they really went to events with us, taking time from their family lives to go to meetings with us," Tapper said. "Like, long nights, from 12 to 5 in the morning where we would just sit and talk. They could have been with their families. They probably should have been with their families. I can't thank them enough."
In the end, Stoops backed the team's vigil, instead of practice, and even went with them.
"Because more than three quarters of my team is minority, and so it hits home," he said. "We felt strong enough. Let's do something about it."
While the SAE house was disbanded, the team bonded. And the players say an unexpected, secondary benefit was that the brotherhood has held, and the results are clear on the football field. Some players pointed to the loss to rival Texas, where the brotherhood was tested. It passed.
"Oh, definitely," Sanchez said. "You never think something like that could happen.…not to that extent. It just brought us that much closer together as a team. It obviously helped us get to the point we're at right now."
"Coach Stoops had our back," Alexander said. "And if he fought for us, we want to fight for him."
"I can't thank the coaches enough," Tapper said, "until we get the national championship. That will be the biggest thank you in the world."
They stood for something far bigger than sports. They'll carry it with them everywhere.
Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter here.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
