Najee Harris, Mac Jones discuss #WeWantToPlay movement, coming season

Mac Jones says he feels safer at Alabama than he would be at home, while Najee Harris said he hasn’t thought once about opting out of the upcoming football season. The two Crimson Tide stars are focused on taking the field this fall amid COVID-19 concerns and have been at the forefront of college football’s #WeWantToPlay movement.

After voicing their desire to play over social media earlier this week, Jones and Harris continued the discussion Friday afternoon during a Zoom call with local media members.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of unknowns, but we just wanted to get our voice out there,” Jones said. “And obviously, we had a lot of guys that could have left last year and they came back, so we want to play for those guys. We want to play for the younger teammates, we want to play for the whole organization, the state of Alabama.”

Harris said that he joined the #WeWantToPlay movement to notify decision-makers that players should have their say in how they are able to create value for themselves for the coming season. The senior back pointed out that by not having a season, players were having years taken away from their careers that they would not be able to get back, something he feels is especially important at the running back position.

“They look at age so much nowadays,” he said. “If a running back is already like, maybe, like me personally... I came back and I’m already 22. Then if I come back another season and I’ll be 23, they can probably use that as something against me. It probably won’t but it’s just another thing to say about it.

“I guess we started something #WeWantToPlay because athletes want to create value for each other for the season. Athletes, we work hard, I mean, we work hard for this. Just to say we’re not gonna play is kind of heartbreaking.”

Harris is coming off a breakout junior season in which he rushed for 1,224 yards and 13 touchdowns while adding 304 yards and seven more scores through the air. Despite being projected as an early-round pick in this year’s NFL draft, the former five-star back elected to return for his final season in an attempt to lock down first-round status in next year’s draft.

In light of recent events, Harris said he hasn’t had second thoughts about returning to Alabama.

“Nah, man, when I make a decision, I stand firm on it,” he said. “I don’t have no regrets on it. I want to come back with my team and just grind it out through another year. We didn’t know what was gonna happen now but now I feel like we have a really good team. No matter what, I’m so happy that I came back. I don’t regret nothing.”

Earlier this week, Harris told ESPN that he would be willing to sign a waiver and agree not to sue the university if he were to contract COVID-19. The star back reiterated his determination to play out the coming season Friday, stating that he hasn’t considered opting out.

“Opting out has never crossed my mind,” he said. “It’s only going into fall camp knowing that we might not play. That’s on a lot of people on the team’s concerns, too, going into fall camp not knowing if we’re playing or not. But opting out has never came to mind.”

Uncertainty over the coming season was a common trend during Friday’s call. Harris stated that he wished there was more certainty in college football but understands “this isn’t something that’s going to be known in like the next day or something.” Jones said he only recently downloaded his social media to post his message on the #WeWantToPlay movement.

“People are going to talk about speculation stuff,” Jones said “But that's kind of what we told our team is, 'Yeah, OK. Some people might be canceling seasons for whatever reason but at the end of the day, we feel safe. And we wanted to get our voice out for that. And you know, we're going to hopefully play and that's the plan.”

The SEC is one of three Power 5 conferences planning on playing this fall after the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced their plans to cancel their fall football seasons in hopes to play in the spring. Thursday, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said that Alabama and the SEC are still planning on beginning its new 10-game, conference-only season on Sept. 26.

Byrne was asked how closely he follows other conferences’ decisions and whether it would be important for the majority of the Power 5 conferences to hold their ground on a fall season. He responded by stating he is currently monitoring other situations but is “trying to make sure we’re balancing that with staying focused on the Southeastern Conference, the University of Alabama, our student-athletes, our coaches and staff and also our fans.”

Friday, Harris was asked about his thoughts on a possible spring season in the event the SEC was forced to go down that route.

“I haven’t thought about that yet,” he said. “I’m still just thinking about starting everything on schedule. When it gets to that, I’ll worry about that then.”

Following a challenging offseason, Alabama should get a sense of normalcy next week as it will start its fall camp Monday. Jones commended his fellow players Friday, stating that the team has responded well to adversity this summer.

“It's definitely different, um, you know, just with the coronavirus and stuff, but other than that, we're still practicing hard,” he said. “I mean, we did get the new strength staff and they've done a great job adjusting to us, and we've adjusted to them. We're just trying to take it day by day, like I said. I mean, we don't know what the future holds and, you know, things are going to change and we just got to go with the punches.”

While Alabama has been cautious in dealing with social distancing, it will face a new set of challenges as classes begin on Wednesday. With more and more students arriving on campus, Byrne stated that while Alabama can’t create a “bubble” for its players, the plan is to operate under an “umbrella” with student-athletes taking a mixture of online and hybrid courses.

Both Harris and Jones said the team has addressed social distancing with players urging each other to take as much caution as possible.

"We try to tell them don’t go to parties, but like it’s kind of hard to tell somebody not to go to a party in college,” Harris said. “We understand it, but we’re kind of just telling them, ‘If you do go to a party, like make sure you guys are overly safe. Make sure you guys wear the mask, make sure you guys are keeping your distance. Make sure you guys are not like too close to people. Make sure you don’t pick up stuff after each other. Just make sure that you guys are overly safe because what you do plays a part in what happens to the whole team.

“They understand that, and we’re all trying to find more ways of trying to be more safe when everybody’s coming back because we know there’s a chance that there’s going to be a high spike in cases.”