ESPN’s Mark Dennis Jr. Identifies Fifth Racist Thing This Week, This Time, It’s Leg Day”
RacismScore: 0.0
Quick Take
MISSISSIPPI BURNING, BS – Mark Dennis Jr. of ESPN has once again uncovered a case of racism invisible to the untrained eye , this time in a Louisiana-Lafayette training video where a strength coach steps across the thighs of players doing wall-sits. Most of the players are Black, which Dennis Jr. says makes the drill “a little too on the nose” for the NCAA’s power dynamics. Some say it’s just a workout. Others say it’s the Gettysburg of leg day.
When Leg Day Becomes a Lesson in Power Dynamics
Dennis Jr. argues the optics here matter. A white coach physically stepping on mostly Black athletes, even in a controlled drill, conjures uncomfortable parallels to centuries of exploitation.
He compares it to historical imagery, NCAA exploitation statistics, and his own personal “racism index” where this clip scores a 7.3 out of 10 (between “Hallmark Christmas movie” and “pickleball noise”). Critics like OutKick’s Bobby Burack counter that such hyper-focus cheapens real conversations on race, noting the clip would likely be called “team building” if the racial ratio were flipped.
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Leg Day Lynching: How a Training Drill Became a Hate Crime
In Dennis Jr.’s expanded theory, the coach’s shoes might as well be named “Oppression 3000s” because each step represents “the crushing weight of 400 years.” He suggests the drill could be replaced with “optics-friendly exercises” like hovering politely over players while apologizing mid-squat.
His forthcoming list of other hidden racist acts includes: whistling the Jeopardy! theme (colonial), tying one’s shoes too tightly (symbolic bondage), and slow-clapping at games (lynching-adjacent energy). At press time, Dennis Jr. was investigating whether the color of the weight plates, standard gym black, was “a form of visual mockery.”
Full Story: ESPN Contributor Finds Slavery Allegory in College Wall-Sits
David Dennis Jr. connects a strength coach’s wall-sit technique to the deep-rooted legacy of systemic oppression in sports, adding to his portfolio of critical race analyses, from holiday rom-coms to pickleball noise.
In a newly surfaced video from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, a strength and conditioning coach is seen stepping across the thighs of players holding 45-pound plates while performing wall-sits, all but two of them Black.
For ESPN contributor David Dennis Jr., the imagery was “a little too on the nose” to ignore. In his view, the act wasn’t just a quirky training drill, but a stark metaphor for the way NCAA programs have historically treated student-athletes, particularly Black ones.
“This isn’t about fitness, this is about optics, history, and the power dynamics baked into sports culture,” Dennis Jr. said, citing the importance of confronting “the physical manifestations of systemic racism” wherever they appear, whether in football facilities, fast-food menus, or the soundtrack of Final Jeopardy!.
