Arkansas State players can voluntarily wear cross decals on helmets

The saga of the cross decals on Arkansas State's helmets is hopefully over.

If you're not familiar with it, we'll get you up to speed. The coaching staff and players at Arkansas State designed a memorial decal in the shape of a cross for DT Markel Owens and team manager Barry Weyer Jr. Owens was killed in an attempted robbery in January and Weyer was killed in a car accident in June.

The stickers, which had the initials of both Owens and Weyer on them, were worn on the back of Arkansas State's helmets for the first two games of the season. However, they were removed after the university received a complaint and its legal counsel felt the crosses would be unconstitutional because of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The first complaint led to a second complaint, and now after the second complaint, players will be allowed to voluntarily place the helmet stickers on their helmets. The players' right to free speech is protected if the decals are put on by the players themselves and are purchased with the players' own funds.

The university defended its decision to remove the stickers after the first complaint because of the Establishment Clause.

According to a university letter to the Liberty Institute, the group that filed the second complaint, the"students themselves did not affix the stickers to their helmets. Rather, the stickers were affixed to the football helmets in two stages. At the end of one practice, the team -- all the coaches and players -- held a team ceremony in honor of the two former students at which time a single decal was affixed to a single helmet. All of the remaining officially-designed and publicly-funded decals were affixed to the helmets by the team's equipment managers."

The letter also said the decision by the coaches and players to make the decal in a shape of a cross was not taken to legal counsel before the decision was finalized.

See how much trouble this could have saved if the decal was a simple four-sided shape? Had the decision been thoroughly vetted and executed to begin with, the tributes to Owens and Weyer wouldn't have had a legal sideshow.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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