NCAA shuts down Trevor Lawrence’s coronavirus relief efforts

Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence and his girlfriend Marissa Mowry wanted to help make a difference during the COVID-19 outbreak, but the NCAA said no.

Trevor Lawrence has constantly looked for ways to get involved in the community and to be a servant since he stepped on campus at Clemson.

That was on display when he and his girlfriend Marissa Mowry, who plays soccer at Anderson University, decided to start a GoFundMe page to help coronavirus victims. Lawrence, a native of Cartersville, Georgia, has seen reports of more than 50 cases of COVID-19 in his home county and more than 500 cases statewide.

Though the two wanted to help out, The State’s Matt Connolly reported Tuesday that the GoFundMe page had been shutdown due to NCAA rules. The page had raised $2,670 in its first day.

A Clemson official told Connolly that the two student-athletes were not allowed to have an active GoFundMe page because of the NCAA’s rule that prohibits using name, likeness or image for crowd funding.

This is another one of those circumstances where the NCAA is standing in the way of doing the right thing in place of archaic rules. Trevor Lawrence could have easily raised thousands of dollars in relief efforts, but will now have to basically sit on the sidelines in quarantine and look on as a result of the rule.

There are waivers that can be approved for circumstances like this, but the NCAA is currently dealing with several issues- including the fall-out from canceling spring sports- that would likely make the waiver somewhere far down the line in terms of priority for the organization.

You have to commend Trevor Lawrence and Marissa for trying to do the right thing and help, but it just goes to show the dire need for a change in how the NCAA operates.

Perhaps this hiatus from sports will spark more opportunities for reformation and reconstruction of the association before it’s all said and done.

UPDATE: The NCAA has released a statement saying they will allow Lawrence and other athletes to raise money for Coronavirus victims and that they did not ask him to take the page down. We will have more on this soon.

Lawrence is as good of a player on the field as he is person off-the-field. The gunslinger passed for 3,665 yards and 36 touchdowns to just eight interceptions during the 2019 season and enters 2020 as one of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy.