Ed Reed, Bethune-Cookman controversy, explained: Why Hall of Fame player won't coach Wildcats

Zac Al-Khateeb

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Ed Reed, Bethune-Cookman controversy, explained: Why Hall of Fame player won't coach Wildcats image

This story has been updated from a previous version.

Ed Reed will not follow in Deion Sanders' footsteps of becoming a high-profile coach at an HBCU.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame safety tweeted Saturday that he would not be the head football coach at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla. Bethune-Cookman announced Dec. 27 that it had agreed in principle for Reed to become the team's coach.

"It's my desire to not only coach college football," Reed said in the statement, "but to be an agent of change that most people just talk about being.

"However, after weeks of negotiation I've been informed that the university won't be ratifying my contract and won't make good on the agreement we had in principle, which had provisions and resources best needed to support the student athletes."

MORE: What is the Celebration Bowl? Explaining history behind 'Black national championship'

The tweet ended a contentious, weeks-long negotiation between Bethune-Cookman and Reed, a Super Bowl champion and nine-time Pro Bowler with the Ravens. Prior to agreeing to be the Wildcats' head coach, Reed served as a senior football adviser for the University of Miami, his alma mater.

The Sporting News looks at why negotiations between Reed and Bethune-Cookman broke down:

Why is Ed Reed not coaching Bethune-Cookman?

Reed claimed in his statement that Bethune-Cookman wouldn't "make good" on key provisions in the agreement that would result in Reed taking over as football coach. Reed followed up with an emotional team meeting in which he suggested the university was at fault:

Warning: Explicit language.

Sanders, whom Reed mentioned in his meeting with players, told ESPN that he spoke to Reed to give him advice.

"I know you do not want to leave those kids," Sanders said he told Reed. "Sometimes in life, you got to walk away."

Sanders, it should be noted, leveraged a successful three-year stint at Jackson State to become the coach at Colorado. He led the Tigers to consecutive SWAC championships and berths in the Celebration Bowl — otherwise known as the Black national championship game — in 2021 and 2022.

MORE: Why Deion Sanders is going to Colorado: Jackson State coach first HBCU coach to jump to Power 5

Bethune-Cookman also issued a statement, suggesting Reed did not meet certain criteria expected of a coach:

"While we appreciate the initial interest in our football program displayed by Mr. Reed during the course of recent weeks, we are also mindful of the qualities and attributes that must be exhibited by our institutional personnel during what have been uniquely challenging times for our campus as we recover from the impact of two hurricanes during this past fall semester," the university said.

Reed appeared on social media several times over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend criticizing the facilities at Bethune-Cookman and HBCUs at large. He later apologized for publicly putting the university on blast.

Update: Bethune-Cookman freshman running back on Saturday tweeted a petition, signed by 24 players on the Wildcats' football team, asking for Reed to be reinstated by the university.

“We firmly believe that the abrupt dismissal of our newly hired head coach Ed Reed is unjust not only to the student-athletes but to the entire BCU family, community and doesn’t align with our founders legacy,” the players said in the accompanying statement.

“We would like to respectfully and firmly request his immediate reinstatement. We were witnessed to tremendous growth and a new direction in a short period of time.”

Bethune-Cookman has won six MEAC championships since 2000 and claimed Black national championships in 2002, 2010, 2012 and 2013 before the advent of the Celebration Bowl in 2015. The team has never appeared in that game.

The team has struggled since its move to the SWAC in 2021, going 2-9 in consecutive seasons under Terry Sims, whom the school fired in November. The Wildcats will continue searching for his replacement with Reed out of the running.

Zac Al-Khateeb

Zac Al-Khateeb Photo

Zac Al-Khateeb has been part of The Sporting News team since 2015 after earning his Bachelor's (2013) and Master's (2014) degrees in journalism at the University of Alabama. Prior to joining TSN, he covered high school sports and general news in Alabama. A college sports specialist, Zac has been a voter for the Biletnikoff Award and Heisman Trophy since 2020.