FLORHAM PARK — Sheldon Richardson was not surprised that protests over racial tensions at the University of Missouri resulted in the resignation of the school's president and chancellor after football players threatened a boycott.
"Not at all," said Richardson, a defensive end who starred at Missouri before the Jets selected him No. 13 overall in the 2013 draft. "Football team runs the school, just like men's basketball."
Missouri students and faculty had been protesting university president Tim Wolfe's lack of action in the face of racial incidents on campus. But once the football team joined the demonstrators by raising the specter of a strike, which would have resulted in the forfeiture of $1 million for breaking a contract to play Saturday's game against BYU, Wolfe and another top administrator at the school caved.