I believed that even if it took no fans, if it took extreme precautions, if it took doing everything differently, if just for this year, and they believed the virus could be controlled, then I was for it.
That was before the Big Ten and Pac-12 decided against playing this season and before the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 said that they would.
I didn't even bother with addressing the NFL, which I assumed would put on its show come hell or highwater.
The resulting seasons have been a disaster and a referendum on the decisions to have a season.
The actual play from all over the country has been terrible, with only a few teams actually having enough continuity to play consistently well on both sides of the ball. Positive, as well as false-positive tests, are decimating rosters and practice schedules.
All while infections continue to rise to the highest point in the pandemic's history.
Football has been an abject failure in containing the disease.
More egregious, at this point, they are complicit in actively participating in its spread if they continue to travel to various sites throughout the country. Each time a team travels they will contact hotel workers, bus drivers, medical personnel, then participate with another team that has been doing the same thing and then going home.
It seemed inevitable to me that this was going to happen as the virus continued to spread throughout the country, especially in places like Florida, Texas and a whole host of other areas in the South where the general public and leadership from the top did not take the virus seriously.
We are averaging roughly 1,000 deaths a day to Covid-19, with that number expected to sky rocket as it's a lagging indicator. The case numbers will almost assuredly spike post Thanksgiving weekend where despite warnings, travel for the holiday remained high.
I think at this point, with a month left to go, the people truly in charge, the presidents of the Universities, the ownership in the league; they need to make decisions that benefit all of us and not just their pocket books.
Cases are exploding across the football landscape at this point. Every single pro-team has had positive cases. Nearly every college team can say the same. The risk is not just to the players, coaches and staff who are relatively low risk, but that they could then easily foster spread within their communities either unknowingly or unwittingly.
I have faithfully watched every Penn State game this year and while it is a fun distraction for me, a fan, I know deep down that every game is another opportunity for a super spreader where one team who might have been asymptomatic passes it to another. Anther chance for someone to get sick, not know it, and spread it to someone else who might be much more vulnerable.
And for what at this point? What will this college football season even add up to with all the missed games and lack of uniformity?
Should the conferences that decided to play first while ignoring the deaths and infections get credit for playing with a sick team that they can't adequately test for? Should the conferences that actually tried to stop the spread be penalized?
How on earth would you ever make a fair and equitable decision about a playoff?
I watched another team I follow win a championship this year. I'm a big Lakers fan, and I enjoyed seeing them win. It felt nice. It felt good. But it didn't feel like the others.
And that's how I felt about watching Penn State beat Michigan.
Sure I loved it. It was great to see the running attack hit hard. It was great to watch Sean Clifford throw darts to Parker Washington and Johan Dotson. I loved watching the guys battle back from adversity and show that they absolutely capable in a competitive setting. I'm sure every player and coach loved it too.
But at this point in time, in this particular year, you see the death toll and the stress it is putting on the poorest communities and you know that the model to emulate is not one where you pretend that the virus doesn't exist and that you can simply 'play through it'.
What we will have in America over the next month if football continues, will be essentially roaming bioweapons, traveling from college town to college town, and city to city infecting other players at first, and then spreading to coaches, training staff, and so on.
The latest projections has the United States passing 300,000 deaths by the middle of December, and potentially 400,000 just 15 days later.
Imagine that the Championship game goes on, and a hideous broken leg injury or a spinal or head injury occurs. Now what hospital does that student-athlete go to? What will the care be? Will the care for someone else suffer because now resources must be used for the athlete?
This is a crisis of the highest magnitude, and it is time for leadership at the highest levels to take charge.
That was before the Big Ten and Pac-12 decided against playing this season and before the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 said that they would.
I didn't even bother with addressing the NFL, which I assumed would put on its show come hell or highwater.
The resulting seasons have been a disaster and a referendum on the decisions to have a season.
The actual play from all over the country has been terrible, with only a few teams actually having enough continuity to play consistently well on both sides of the ball. Positive, as well as false-positive tests, are decimating rosters and practice schedules.
All while infections continue to rise to the highest point in the pandemic's history.
Football has been an abject failure in containing the disease.
More egregious, at this point, they are complicit in actively participating in its spread if they continue to travel to various sites throughout the country. Each time a team travels they will contact hotel workers, bus drivers, medical personnel, then participate with another team that has been doing the same thing and then going home.
It seemed inevitable to me that this was going to happen as the virus continued to spread throughout the country, especially in places like Florida, Texas and a whole host of other areas in the South where the general public and leadership from the top did not take the virus seriously.
We are averaging roughly 1,000 deaths a day to Covid-19, with that number expected to sky rocket as it's a lagging indicator. The case numbers will almost assuredly spike post Thanksgiving weekend where despite warnings, travel for the holiday remained high.
I think at this point, with a month left to go, the people truly in charge, the presidents of the Universities, the ownership in the league; they need to make decisions that benefit all of us and not just their pocket books.
Cases are exploding across the football landscape at this point. Every single pro-team has had positive cases. Nearly every college team can say the same. The risk is not just to the players, coaches and staff who are relatively low risk, but that they could then easily foster spread within their communities either unknowingly or unwittingly.
I have faithfully watched every Penn State game this year and while it is a fun distraction for me, a fan, I know deep down that every game is another opportunity for a super spreader where one team who might have been asymptomatic passes it to another. Anther chance for someone to get sick, not know it, and spread it to someone else who might be much more vulnerable.
And for what at this point? What will this college football season even add up to with all the missed games and lack of uniformity?
Should the conferences that decided to play first while ignoring the deaths and infections get credit for playing with a sick team that they can't adequately test for? Should the conferences that actually tried to stop the spread be penalized?
How on earth would you ever make a fair and equitable decision about a playoff?
I watched another team I follow win a championship this year. I'm a big Lakers fan, and I enjoyed seeing them win. It felt nice. It felt good. But it didn't feel like the others.
And that's how I felt about watching Penn State beat Michigan.
Sure I loved it. It was great to see the running attack hit hard. It was great to watch Sean Clifford throw darts to Parker Washington and Johan Dotson. I loved watching the guys battle back from adversity and show that they absolutely capable in a competitive setting. I'm sure every player and coach loved it too.
But at this point in time, in this particular year, you see the death toll and the stress it is putting on the poorest communities and you know that the model to emulate is not one where you pretend that the virus doesn't exist and that you can simply 'play through it'.
What we will have in America over the next month if football continues, will be essentially roaming bioweapons, traveling from college town to college town, and city to city infecting other players at first, and then spreading to coaches, training staff, and so on.
The latest projections has the United States passing 300,000 deaths by the middle of December, and potentially 400,000 just 15 days later.
Imagine that the Championship game goes on, and a hideous broken leg injury or a spinal or head injury occurs. Now what hospital does that student-athlete go to? What will the care be? Will the care for someone else suffer because now resources must be used for the athlete?
This is a crisis of the highest magnitude, and it is time for leadership at the highest levels to take charge.
Stop the season, and concentrate on helping each other through what will likely be the worst winter of our lives.
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