Read on Twitter
I’m on vacation and log on Twitter to see CFB has nearly been canceled. I 100% understand the risk (there is some) and the liability (it would terrify any decision maker),but we’ve got to figure out how to go to work, school, play sports etc.
It’s been five months. We had zero clues of what we were dealing with back then. We’re still learning now, but we know definitively that college athletes are at a higher risk of dying driving to and from campus than from COVID-19.
Furthermore, if you cancel the season, do you think players will be more safe without athletic motivation and structure, daily health checks and world class medical staffs? A large chunk of CFB positives happened when players returned to campus from being on their own.
We also need to be discussing the long term impact of not playing the season. First, on the athletes. Some who are trying to go pro, others who may be on their final team ever. What is the emotional toll of the disruption of their lives in their prime?
TSSAA Executive Director Bernard Childress told me part of the motivation of playing high school sports this fall was that 66% of students were reporting signs of depression without normal activities. You think that would be lower for the BEST athletes?
In Nashville (as of last week) we had more overdose deaths than COVID deaths since March and are on pace to double the number from last year. Those are mostly healthy, young people now facing despair because of the reaction to a virus that poses a .01% mortality rate for them.
If CFB is canceled, what’s the future for other college sports? We’ve already seen major cuts at several schools, including Director’s Cup power Stanford. The program cuts and loss of opportunity for kids will be massive and tragic.
The economic impact on college towns will near catastrophic. Businesses will close, people will move, depression will set in. Every study that’s been done shows significant and extended economic depression has devastating effects on public health, including major uptick in deaths
The first thing that has to happen is Congress needs to get to work and pass zero liability in the stimulus bill. Then college presidents and ADs need to figure out how to play as safely as possible.
