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Football Recruit Uses Ohio State Visit to Make Statement

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Nationally ranked football prospect Tyreke Smith wore a shirt with a message to a recruiting visit at Ohio State University last week and has since caused a stir on the internet.

Smith, a high school junior at Clemens Heights High School, is a highly sought after athlete, according to Cleveland19. He tweeted a photo of himself at the Big Ten university in Columbus wearing a shirt that read “I hope I don’t get killed for being Black today.”

“I decided to wear the shirt because I wanted to bring attention to the epidemic of blacks being killed at an alarming rate,” Tyreke told OSU sports site ElevenWarriors.com. “What we would like to do is have people talk about these issues to reduce the murder rate of African Americans.”

Smith’ shirt was considered timely and relevant as he may have been highlighting the death of Tamir Rice who was from his hometown or responding to the Philando Castile verdict which took place the day before Smith’s visit.

The shirt was made by his brother, Malik Smith, after he himself had lost several according to Fox 8.

“I wanted to get the message across and I knew with the platform I had, I could,” said Tyreke Smith.