Heartbreaking reaction as UAB players told football program is shutting down

Published Dec. 3, 2014 5:46 a.m. ET

foxsports

The college football world as a whole may not blink over the announcement that the University of Alabama-Birmingham is shutting down the football program. The program's had mostly losing seasons and only one bowl trip, in 2004.

But for the Blazers players and coaches, who got the news in a meeting with President Ray Watts on Tuesday, the decision hit like a ton of bricks. Players broke into tears while making fiery speeches in which their voices cracked with emotion. The whole scene was captured in a cellphone video posted on YouTube.

Among the highlights:

"It's bigger than what you think. It's not about numbers. It's about family," one tearful player told Watts, whom he accused of not being as supportive as the previous president.

"This guy had 30 surgeries last year!" he said, pointing to a teammate.

"Never did you guys ask us what could we do to bring money," another teammate stated. "Never!"

"My 3-year-old son, what am I supposed to tell him?" senior tight end Tristan Thompson wailed. "And you tellin' me because the numbers didn't look right?"

"Some of these cats came from 3,000 miles away! To be a part of this!" he added.

"This man ... walked in your office and said, 'You gotta do it the right way for me to be here,'" he said, referring to first-year coach Bill Clark. "And you said you would. And now you just pull the plug?!"

Watts, who needed a police escort and was met with boos outside, says UAB pulled the plug after a campus-wide study conducted by a consulting firm over the past year revealed that financial realities "are starker than ever and demand that we take decisive action for the greater good of the athletic department and UAB." He says UAB subdisizes two-thirds of the $30 million annual operating budget.

UAB Prsident Ray Watts is led through an angry mob by Birmingham and UAB Police after the meeting with the football team Tuesday.

However, the facts and decision were being hotly debated on social media, while hundreds of UAB students and fans gathered and marched through campus the past three days showing their support of the program. Former Alabama QB AJ McCarron challenged the entire state to stand up and fight to save the program. UAB alum Roddy White of the Atlanta Falcons also tweeted support for the Blazers, who saw attendance double this season as they finished 6-6 and became bowl eligible.

Now, they're the first major college football program to shut down since Pacific in 1995.

"It's like SMU," tight end Brandon Prince said. "We got the death penalty without any NCAA violations."

Conditioning coach Zac Woodfin consoles UAB player Timothy Alexander after the meeting.

Former player Timothy Alexander, in a wheelchair after being paralyzed in a car crash, thanked the supporters and offered them his cleats.

"Thank y'all so much," he said. "Y'all have been the biggest support of our life and it means so much to us."

Players can transfer to other schools and play immediately, though Clark told al.com that the players met after the meeting and agreed to play in a bowl game if they're selected for one. But that was of small consolation to a team without a future.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.