College football is a multi-billion-dollar industry. So even as coronavirus spread, most schools pushed forward with the 2020 season. But as the pandemic and the racial justice movement exposed inequalities across the country, college football athletes, who aren’t paid for their work and the risks they take on the field, started to speak up.

Treyjohn Butler, a senior cornerback at Stanford University, was one of those students. He and other football players from his NCAA conference, the Pac-12, came together under a group called #WeAreUnited and wrote a list of demands that included better health care, racial justice, and compensation for student athletes.

On this episode of Into America, Treyjohn tells Trymaine why he thinks it’s the right time to change the way colleges treat their football players.

Further Reading:

• #WeAreUnited statement in the Players’ Tribune
• 5 ways college football is going to be different in 2020