Ohio State recruit's camp shirt: 'I hope I don't get killed for being black today'

Tyreke Smith is one of the best defensive end prospects in the class of 2018, but it's something outside of football that grabbed attention over the weekend.

The Cleveland native wore a shirt with the caption "I hope I don't get killed for being black today," while participating in a one-day camp at Ohio State.

"I decided to wear the shirt because I wanted to bring attention to the epidemic of blacks being killed at an alarming rate," Smith told Andrew Lind of ElevenWarriors.com. "What we would like to do is have people talk about these issues to reduce the murder rate of African-Americans."

Smith lives in a county that saw 168 homicides in 2016, and his brother Malik said the purpose of the shirt is to raise awareness on both police brutality and black-on-black crimes.

"The shirt was created to bring light in to the everyday problems that blacks face between police and black-on-black crimes," Malik said. "The shirt exemplifies a voice that we have, but may not be heard. So why not have people see it?"

Smith is ranked by ESPN as the 20th-best defensive end in the class of 2018 and is listed 178th on the list of 300 top prospects. He holds offers from a number of top programs outside of Ohio State including Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, USC, and Oklahoma.