USM Golden Eagles protest the shooting of Jacob Blake

The University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles football team has joined other schools in Mississippi in skipping practice to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake.

The team made the announcement Friday through the Sun Herald newspaper.

“We live by a brotherhood,” the USM players said in a statement. “We hold ourselves to high standards on and off the field of play. We cannot be silent to instances of racial injustice in our country any longer.

“We are not practicing today. Instead, we are standing up against racial injustice and extending our brotherhood to actively speak out against racism.”

In a tweet, coach Jay Hopson said the coaching staff stood behind the players.

We as a Coaching Staff fully support our players in a march against Social Injustice! # 11 Brothers https://t.co/M4vY55Qb2o

— Jay Hopson 🦅🔝 (@CoachHopson) August 28, 2020

The Golden Eagles plan to march around the M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg today at 5 p.m.

Southern Miss is the third big Mississippi college to boycott practice in protest of the Blake shooting. Ole Miss players protested in Oxford today, and MSU boycotted practice Thursday.

Blake was shot seven times in the back Sunday by Rusten Sheskey, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The shooting, which left Blake paralyzed from the waist down, has sparked protests around the nation. It is under investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation and other agencies.