CHAPEL HILL – Whatever clout Mack Brown has, he tried using it during his weekly press conference Monday morning.

As it stands, fans are not allowed to attend college football games in the state of North Carolina, as mandated by Governor Roy Cooper, who just last week elevated the state to Phase 2.5 of its lockdown, which still doesn’t permit large gatherings or fans at sporting events. This will at least run through early October.

So, there won’t be anyone inside Kenan Stadium on Saturday when the Tar Heels open the season versus Syracuse. Well, no fans that is.

And that’s where Brown’s plea comes in. Over the weekend, former Tar Heel Pat Crowley, who played for Brown at UNC in the early 1990s and whose son is currently a redshirt freshman walk-on tight end on the team, wrote a letter to players’ parents requesting they make their voices heard to Cooper about at least allowing them to see the games in person.

Brown did his part during Monday's opening comments.

“I'm responsible for our football family and that's our parents and our players,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “And right now our parents are not allowed to come to the game. These parents have seen these kids play since a very early age and they need to be there and they need to be there to celebrate with them after a win, to try to pick them up after a game that you didn't play well in, maybe they didn't play and they need mental support because mental health is so important right now and their academic support. But also, we play a very physical game and we need to try to make sure that the parents are there if one of their sons got hurt and hopefully that wouldn't happen, but they would be there to support them and make sure that they're safe moving forward.

“So I would ask that the decision-makers that have made the decision not to let parents in the game this weekend, we're talking about hundreds in a 50-plus thousand seat stadium, where they would be wearing masks and they would be social distancing and making sure that they were totally safe to our community, would reconsider that decision and let the parents come. And that's talking about universities all over the state because parents need to see their kids play. And that that's very, very important from our standpoint moving forward.”

Brown didn’t specifically mention Crowley or his letter, and he didn’t petition anyone to contact the governor. But he did use his platform, and his comments quickly made the rounds among a variety of media outlets in the area from television to online sites.

Carolina’s coach also made it clear he has limited power and isn’t operating on behalf of anyone aside from his comments. But is he aware of any special considerations that could come from this?

“I would have to let (Director of Athletics) Bubba (Cunningham) answer that,” Brown said. “But I know that everybody at UNC thinks the parents should be able to see their kids play and they want them to see their kids play. But they would have to answer what communication they’ve had. I’ve been a little bit overloaded.”

Note: As of the time this piece was published, it’s uncertain if UNC has worked to get an allowance for parents to attend games. If THI receives more information on this we will add it to the forum thread in which this piece is posted. A request for more information has been submitted.