Justin Fields, Big Ten players petition to reinstate the 2020 football season
Does this do any good ? Or do the powers that be try to explain their reasoning (liability) to the players
August 16th, 2020 at 2:04 PM ^
Didn’t OSU come out against what other BIG players wanted a few weeks ago ??
August 16th, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
Just passed 80,000 signatures in less than 2 hours.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:54 PM ^
They can get millions of signatures when its free. Why not ask fo $50+ to fund insurance for a COVID19 medial complications plan or whatever else makes sense. Make people put their money where their mouth is.
August 16th, 2020 at 3:48 PM ^
And sign off to absorb the costs of any lawsuits that can occur in the future.
The current model of amateurism simply can't cover the potential liabilities here. No matter what the players and their families sign, lawyers will be coming at these schools for decades.
August 16th, 2020 at 5:26 PM ^
They are losing billions by not playing. I’m sure it would be more profitable to play and cover the risk of a lawsuit.
The likelihood of a player getting severely and permanently sick from Covid is not high. Then it would have to be proven that the player contracted the disease because of football and not because they were at class, party, bar, grocery store, gas station etc. Plus kids would be offered an opt out and not forced to play. If all of those things lined up how much would the settlement be?
I think this has less to do with a financial decision and more about the decision makers having to come up with a plan under scrutiny and not wanting to face intense criticism. This is the easy way out.
Or maybe they thought they were doing the right thing.
August 16th, 2020 at 7:43 PM ^
Your question should be not how much would the settlement be for a university but how much could the settlement be and it might not be a settlement but a jury award that could be staggering should one or more players suffer a Covid-related lifetime of compromise. Exactly who is going to underwrite the risk and at what cost?
Your argument about proving the origin of the disease is not going to hold water. Put the question of how the kid got sick in the hands of a good attorney and in front of a jury and get out your wallets. He wasn't sick when he arrived on campus and go from there.
The decision not to play is largely being driven by lawyers getting advice from physicians. I suspect the other three conferences not yet sitting this one out have been told the same thing but they have chosen for the moment to play a waiting game.
There are no winners with the decisions the B1G, PAC 12, MAC, Ivy Leaguue, etc. reached but there is risk mitigation, and schools must do that to protect themselves even if it makes the fans unhappy. Based on what has happened at Oklahoma and how Covid is spreading at ND, I expect more dominoes to fall. It truly sucks but so does a pandemic.
What bothers me almost as much is how Michigan is bringing back a sizable chunk of the student body. There, we have a money grab pure and simple and Schlissel, who should have gotten off his ass and addressed the athletes personally about his decision not to play fall sports, but did not, and the rest of the worthless trustees should be ashamed of themselves.
August 16th, 2020 at 4:48 PM ^
I tweeted a slightly modified version of your idea as a suggestion.
My totally and utterly bold prediction: this petition won't have anywhere near as many signatures...
August 16th, 2020 at 7:05 PM ^
Who's covering the liability for the hundreds of thousands of students. That probably outnumber the players 10,000 to 1?
August 17th, 2020 at 3:06 AM ^
Nobody asked us fans to chip in to a liability fund. Hell, if the players want to play let them. Our huge fan based liability fund will easily settle on monetary settlements for any player who will sue the University.
August 16th, 2020 at 4:07 PM ^
Does anyone think an online petition signed by whoever is more effective than a petition signed only by the players?
Getting a sizable percentage of players carries some weight, even if it is too late. Getting a large number of random names to sign on is just for show.
August 16th, 2020 at 4:51 PM ^
This petition is going to get more signatures then any petition to arrest Breona Taylor's murders which just goes to show the state of our country
August 16th, 2020 at 2:07 PM ^
What will mean more to the university presidents - millions of signatures of random people or doctors and lawyers explaining risks and liability?
August 17th, 2020 at 4:08 AM ^
If you are an alum who donates to the school, it could mean a whole lot.
August 17th, 2020 at 9:08 AM ^
If missing a single season is a make/break issue for alumni giving donations, that doesnt sound like those are alumni who truly care about the school.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:08 PM ^
Will be a good lesson for the kid that he can’t always get what he wants.
August 16th, 2020 at 3:04 PM ^
He shouldn't have been allowed to play last season.... Maybe he'll use those same resources to get to play this year.
August 17th, 2020 at 7:11 AM ^
But if tries sometimes, well, he just might find, that he gets what he needs.....
August 16th, 2020 at 2:09 PM ^
Let’s see Fields sign that waiver that you can’t sue for long term issues or death for playing. I bet that doesn’t get signed so quick
August 16th, 2020 at 2:27 PM ^
This is exactly it. Let everyone in society put their money where there mouth is. If you want to do something, wave your ability to sue down the line.
Everyone has their opinion on how dangerous this virus is, and if you think you’ll be alright, let’s get things going again. If you don’t, stay home, but know you have an option when you feel safe enough... what ever your definition of safe is.
August 16th, 2020 at 3:07 PM ^
Wow, I just noticed the article said they already had 15 football players in the BIG10 with post COVID19 myocarditis when they made the decision. That could easily ballon to 150 or more when students are back, contact drills happen, and games are played.
August 16th, 2020 at 4:42 PM ^
I’m not being a smartass when I ask this question, but are all players tested for this condition before their freshman year? If so, then it’s probably from the Covid. If not, how do we know that it wasn’t a preexisting cindition?
August 16th, 2020 at 5:17 PM ^
Well the incidence rate was about 0.05% prior to Covid. So there should have been 1-3 cases in all of D1 football. Having 15 cases on a single team is extraordinarily unlikely.
August 16th, 2020 at 5:22 PM ^
Thanks. Was all 15 on one team or total for the conference? I thought it was the conference
August 16th, 2020 at 7:36 PM ^
The only thing I read was that the 15 got it after having covid. They didn’t release and more details (which schools and how were they screened before) and probably won’t. Does anyone know if college football players get screened for myocarditis as a matter of practice these days given the more recent but rare deaths?
August 16th, 2020 at 4:19 PM ^
Sure, as long as it doesn’t abrogate my ability to sue someone who’s negligent behavior infects me with COVID-19. People are welcome to assume risks for themselves, let’s just call it victimless risk. COVID isn’t victimless, though. When the behavior of a small minority insures that everyone else gets exposed, that’s when I get pissed off. This isn’t an individual rights issue, it’s a societal rights issue.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
Led by Fields, it seems he will do anything not to miss out on his chance to win the Heisman.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:17 PM ^
He attends no classes and now with no football might as well start a petition just for something to do. SMH right back at him.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:58 PM ^
' “I want to know which is worse, to be ravished a hundred times by ... pirates, to have a buttock cut off, to run the gauntlet among the Bulgarians, to be whipped and hanged at an auto-da-fé, to be dissected, to row in the galleys—in short, to go through all the miseries we have undergone, or to stay here and have nothing to do?”
“It is a great question,” said Candide.'
August 16th, 2020 at 4:52 PM ^
Maybe he'll get so bored that he'll actually step on OSU's campus this year
August 16th, 2020 at 11:28 PM ^
And risk getting Covid?
August 16th, 2020 at 2:19 PM ^
I say let them play... elsewhere. Immediate disqualification from playing for any Big Ten team.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:20 PM ^
A waste of time in my opinion. I love the passion so many of these athletes and coaches have but this won’t change anything.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:26 PM ^
Peacefully organizing and communicating your desire for change in a civil way is a waste of time?
These guys might not win the argument, sure, but learning how to stand up for what you believe is best and communicating it in an appropriate way is hardly a waste of time.
August 16th, 2020 at 3:01 PM ^
I agree 100% even if I think it’s a waste of time
August 16th, 2020 at 3:30 PM ^
I'll take that everyday and on SUnday over taking to the streets to riot.
August 16th, 2020 at 3:43 PM ^
Actually protesting in the streets works better big fella. It’s what the United States is built on.
August 16th, 2020 at 4:30 PM ^
Seems to be working well in Portland.
August 16th, 2020 at 4:34 PM ^
Actually, he said riot's not protest's there big fella. There is a huge difference and where protests do work, prolonged riot action is well known to be detrimental to any cause.
August 16th, 2020 at 4:34 PM ^
I agree that it's a great exercise in organizing, communicating, and usage of civil rights. They do have a voice and it should be heard. I just meant that it’s not going to change the fact that football will not be played this year.
August 17th, 2020 at 10:34 AM ^
Great response... thank you. It's amazing to me how many MGo members are shitting on Fields for trying to do everything he can to play football this season. Are we not all college football fans? Shouldn't we all respect a student athlete for standing up, voicing his opinion, and using his platform to advocate for other players??
But his uniform is S&G.. so let's all just shit on him because of that. If this were Shea Patterson last year, he'd be getting applauded for doing the same thing.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:22 PM ^
Justin Fields and his family want to get paid for this football season. Its as simple as that. If he does not play, he gets no money for the Ohio State "organization."
August 16th, 2020 at 2:29 PM ^
I'm very curious why he is so adamant about playing. He is a guaranteed top 10 pick, isn't he. He won't go before Lawrence no matter what he does, or is there a chance?
August 16th, 2020 at 2:36 PM ^
He is now, but a season of others playing and him sitting in Ohio could change that drastically. He has a lot to gain by playing.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:44 PM ^
OK, he's currently projected as a Top 10 pick and it's backed up with plenty of film. What exactly could change drastically if he doesn't play? You think he's going to slip to the 4th round?
I'd be much more concerned if I were (say) Aidan[1] Hutchinson. I could definitely see why he'd want to play.
[1] Screwed up and put Chris the first time ...
August 16th, 2020 at 2:50 PM ^
He has one year of film and the year before that he was beat out by Fromm. He plays at a school that has not produced any NFL QBs in quite some time. I would say he has a lot to lose. If he sits and others play, he falls quite far. QBs are not like other positions, teams tend to take them in the first round or much later (exceptions obviously apply, but it is a much different position in the draft).
And Chris Hutchinson is an emergency room doctor, I don’t think he will get drafted again.
August 16th, 2020 at 3:24 PM ^
"He plays at a school that has not produced any NFL QBs in quite some time."
He has no meaningful connection to the Tressel or Meyer eras. He played a single season for the new coach Ryan Day. Who gives a *#&% what happened under prior OSU regimes?
QB picks are evenly distributed through the draft. Here's a list from the last normal draft (2019):
1: 3
2: 1
3: 1
4: 2
5: 2
6: 2
7: 0
Chris corrected to Aidan, thanks.
August 16th, 2020 at 3:14 PM ^
Jaylen Mayfield is also listed as a first rounder. These projections are also projecting the next season success, not what happens without a season. Fields falls like DPJ if he doesn’t play.
August 16th, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
There is zero chance Fields falls out of the first round by not playing. If anything he may be at higher risk of moving down by being beat up or injured from an all conference schedule. Gone are those potential 2020 highlight films from a BG, Buffalo or Miami of Ohio beatdowns.
August 16th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
Assuming the baseline is he's a top 10 pick right now.
Play: Maybe gets up into the top 5 if he doesn't get hurt and lights it up.
Doesn't play: Is still a top 10 pick.
August 16th, 2020 at 3:00 PM ^
I can't think of another QB who thinks they are gonna play (I don't think anyone will play) that would move ahead of him based on a Covid season. I applaud the kid for wanting to play, but a half season would be potentially more dangerous than no season for any top 10 pick.