FSU football players tweet concern about football leadership lying and misleading athletes about Covid and team's health
https://twitter.com/warrenj11__/status/1293910729335029763?s=21
https://twitter.com/TheMomToAngel/status/1293915702869602304?s=19
This is a bad look for FSU and another potential issue with playing football this year. Coaches and staff at some schools will not be as responsible as other schools in regards to Covid and testing
August 13th, 2020 at 11:11 AM ^
It is so asinine to be trying to play football right now. I’m glad some football players realize this.
August 13th, 2020 at 5:12 PM ^
Should never ever play football again. Statistically speaking, a college football player has a greater chance of dying from the practice and play of football than of SARS CoV-2. Statistically speaking, a college football player has a greater chance of suffering a life altering injury during the practice and play of football than from SARS CoV-2.
It's well neigh time to stop the blaxploitation of POC. Keep offering scholarships to the needy, but put an end to the blood sport.
August 13th, 2020 at 5:20 PM ^
I know that it is a fool's errand to respond to a post like yours, but at some level you must realize you're being intentionally obtuse about this, right?
August 13th, 2020 at 5:45 PM ^
Some people would like to see dangerous activities become less dangerous and offer more protections. I guess the argument is that if you choose to participate in a dangerous activity then who cares if something makes it even more dangerous? I don't really know. Also, it'll be years until we understand all the stats for Covid-19 so I guess we should just throw caution to the wind since we don't have all the data? Again, just guessing at this line of reasoning.
August 13th, 2020 at 5:51 PM ^
Because, in this case, the danger isn’t just to the actual player who chooses to participate. It’s also a danger to everyone he comes in contact with - classmates, players, teachers, grandparents, janitors - most of whom will have no choice in the matter. It’s a contagion, one that exploits lack of social distancing. Why is this still so hard for people to grasp?
August 13th, 2020 at 6:08 PM ^
I think the sport should be banned for all those reasons, the potential physical and mental harm to the players, and the absolute exploitation of POC. Why was that so hard to grasp?
August 13th, 2020 at 9:17 PM ^
Because your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
August 14th, 2020 at 11:42 AM ^
Great post .. love the sarcasm and satire. Everyone on this board would rather the whole world shutdown before giving adults the opportunity to make informed decisions about their future. You have a better chance or getting struck by lightning or car accident than you do dying of Covid (statistically speaking ).
August 15th, 2020 at 11:13 AM ^
You go inside during a thunderstorm to lower the risk of being killed by a lightning strike. You put snow tires on, engage 4 wheel drive if you can, and drive more cautiously in the snow so as to lower the risk of dying in an accident. Similarly, you take precautions to avoid corona during a pandemic.
August 13th, 2020 at 11:12 AM ^
Oh, who would imagine football programs cutting corners to keep playing and to get a competitive advantage. Anyone who trusts the word of coaches and ADs over health experts and school presidents gets what they deserve.
August 13th, 2020 at 2:10 PM ^
But I was assured that you could just make all the athletes sign waivers or just say "assumption of risk" and then all these problems would go away.
This is starting to make me think that might not be such a good idea after all.
August 13th, 2020 at 9:31 PM ^
35k people per year die in car accidents. If you ask a health expert whether riding in cars is dangerous, their answer ought to be, "yes". Their job is not to evaluate risk vs. reward, it's to present and mitigate risk. So I can CLEARLY not choose the solutions in front of them...
MSU + PSU among other places have dismissed presidents within the last decade for demonstrating that they are untrustworthy. So I can CLEARLY not choose the solutions in front of them...
The virus originated in China, whose human population is entirely composed of humans, which is a species of that is entirely made up of imperfect people, so I can CLEARLY not choose the solutions from there...
You've given everything away, I know where the lack of maturity is! It's in thinking ANYBODY has all the right answers!!! Make your own mind up, do your best to get as much information as possible, and act accordingly. You'll screw up sometimes, learn from it, do better. Don't stop making up your own damned mind, because one of the very few things that's certain in this life is it's that there isn't any government agency, health agency, business, anything period that is going to get all the calls right all the time.
August 14th, 2020 at 1:51 PM ^
Make up your own mind. That's the problem. Too many people think they know more than the experts. The worst part of the past 3 1/2 years is the lack of respect and deference to expertise.
August 13th, 2020 at 11:13 AM ^
Mike Norvell has been busy disenfranchising every player in the building before playing a single game.
August 13th, 2020 at 1:17 PM ^
What a whirlwind. Couldn't keep their national title winning coach in Jimbo Fisher. Hired a guy that was only coaching Oregon for one year. Fired him within a year and a half. Made what seemed like a solid hire. Lied about how he was communicating with players about BLM. Now doesn't seem to be organized and isn't communicating with players on health and safety.
FSU athletic department needs torn down. At least the football people. Leonard Hamilton seems to be doing a good job.
August 13th, 2020 at 2:15 PM ^
It seemed like both parties were pretty happy for Jimbo to leave, which really underscores how toxic and incompetent they are.
August 13th, 2020 at 2:19 PM ^
What was the reason for firing Taggert so quickly? Always seemed fishy to me that a black coach in the south didn’t even get two full seasons to build up a program that was half in the ditch
August 13th, 2020 at 4:41 PM ^
They had no patience and they were in denial about the state of the program. His first team missed a bowl game, which they hadn’t done since the eighties, and his second team was 4-5 when FSU fired him. Fans were ready to fire him after his first year.
I don’t think this was wise, though. Unless Norvell is a home run hire, it might be hard to get out of the rut they’re in.
August 13th, 2020 at 11:14 AM ^
Need more information. Warren's tweet was poorly stated and contains virtually no information. I really wish there was some evidence included to better assess 'lies', and/or what safety precautions are/are not performed.
Nonetheless, on the surface, this seems like a bad omen for FSU. And a less than good start for Norvell...
August 13th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^
It’s almost like we need some kind of “national governing body” to step in and set universal rules that “guarantee player safety”? Like, and I’m just spitballing here, something we might call a “National Collegiate Athletic Association”? Dare to dream...
August 13th, 2020 at 11:58 AM ^
The boys at the top are really earning those $2m+ salaries.
August 13th, 2020 at 12:09 PM ^
Too outlandish and the acronym with two A’s in a row sounds weird.
August 13th, 2020 at 1:44 PM ^
AA and AAA say hi! Literally and figuratively.
August 13th, 2020 at 3:49 PM ^
So Alcoholics Anonymous literally said hi and the American Automobile Association figuratively said hi?
Right after college a buddy and I were driving and he said, "Hey, there's the Alcoholic's club." I didn't know Ann Arbor (AA?) had one of those and was all excited to check it out. I asked him if he wanted to pull in and get a drink. He told me it was AA (dumbass.)
August 13th, 2020 at 11:16 AM ^
Man this is shocking. Who could've possibly foreseen a school withholding information on the health of players (allegedly)so they don't have to stop practicing.
If only a major conference or two would've forseen this happening, stepped up, and made the unpopular but necessary decision to shut the thing down maybe this wouldn't have occurred (allegedly).
If only.
August 13th, 2020 at 12:02 PM ^
+1
And I've mos def used your comment of I'd rather the B1G not play and be wrong than play and be wrong. a couple times in conversations with friends.
These are 18-to-23-year old young men with their entire lives in front of them. And some people want them to risk very real heath issues for the rest of their lives in exchange for the fleeting gratification of a three-month football season? I just can't sometimes.
August 13th, 2020 at 12:45 PM ^
Glad you point out "health issues" as opposed to the death rate which is so gleefully thrown about here. You're right; COVID doesn't have to kill you to ruin your life.
I'm assuming some of these players want to be drafted. As in, actually play in the NFL. Well, you kind of need to be in good health to do that. Guess what, you can feel fine, but have significantly reduced heart & lung capacity from COVID damage. The lung damage is often so extensive it lights up X-rays like radioactive Swiss cheese. And this is much more common than the miniscule death rate among 18-22 year olds. One of the main reasons why young people handle COVID so much better is that they have that many more hit points to lose.
If you can afford to lose them, and there's the rub. I'm probably fine with a 10-20% drop in lung capacity because I'm a desk slob. I hit maximum physical exertion maybe 2-3 times a year. 99.99999% of the time, I wouldn't notice the loss. But for elite athletes where every wasted step and extra breath counts, the damage doesn't need to be that extensive. IANAD but I wonder what a 10% loss in your body's ability to oxygenate at peak exertion does to performance if your day job is staying in the noon shadow of an elite slot receiver. Or taking on a double-team. Or running an offense for four quarters. Or if you're Don effin' Brown, who very much is not 18-22 years old.
We were angry when Hoke risked Funchess' NFL career to keep playing in a blowout loss. We considered it cowardly and unethical, because it was. Well, having a 2020 season is doing that for every single player on every team for every play of every game.
August 13th, 2020 at 2:12 PM ^
I missed the BLM stuff from Norvell - holy hell! He just flat out lied! Glad his players called him on it. What a douche...
August 13th, 2020 at 11:19 AM ^
It'll be interesting to see if this creates a tipping point for the rest of the P5 to reconsider the season. For the ACC, it poses a significant juxtaposition to Trevor Lawrence's tweet (despite Clemson already having at least one player opt out).
There are no easy answers here. Unfortunately, it only appears to be lose-lose for those making the decisions:
- play and potentially harm people long term
- don't play, disappoint people and have the 'I told you so' crowd pending what more we learn about COVID
August 13th, 2020 at 11:31 AM ^
There are no easy answers here. Unfortunately, it only appears to be lose-lose for those making the decisions:
- play and potentially harm people long term
- don't play, disappoint people and have the 'I told you so' crowd pending what more we learn about COVID
That hardly seems like a difficult choice to me: Kill people or stop playing a game for some number of months. It's a game. Stop. Despite how wrong it is, coaches will still get paid millions. Athletes will keep their full ride plus deals. Stand down. Don't kill people.
August 13th, 2020 at 12:42 PM ^
Not to mention, these STUDENT athletes (or at least some of them) will spend more time on classroom work and derive a better education than they would have been able to playing football. Nothing wrong with that.
August 13th, 2020 at 2:58 PM ^
I totally agree with you and to me the choice is a no-brainer - it's silly to unnecessarily put people at risk when the long-term repercussions are unknown.
My point was that those making the decisions have to accept backlash regardless of the choice. Looking at the tweets of some players, they want to play, the top 2 Heisman candidates among them. Even Harbaugh's statements were compelling, but every player should know if they have an enlarged heart before signing a waiver to play. And if playing means getting instant transfers over the next 3 weeks, a) enter more chaos and b) if the ESS EEE SEE has a "season" with no catastrophes, the hand-wringing over cancelling will be significant. I don't agree with that line of thought. Just saying, that's all.
Ergo, it doesn't change my view that the MAC, B1G and PAC have done the right thing based on best available information.
August 13th, 2020 at 11:43 AM ^
A tipping point is hard to predict when it means a public school is going against their state's political leadership.
When your governor is inviting athletes from Big Ten schools to come on down, or another is proclaiming that reopening schools is going great in the face of obvious problems, universities are in a difficult position if they think the Big Ten and PAC-12 are doing things right.
If those 3 conferences cancel fall football, we're going to see them putting the commissioners front and center to take as much of the heat as possible.
August 13th, 2020 at 12:07 PM ^
When your governor is comparing the opening of schools to killing Bin Laden, I don't think "leadership" is really in play anymore.
August 13th, 2020 at 12:10 PM ^
Well when said governor is an absolute sycophant for the current administration, your bar should automatically be set pretty low.
August 13th, 2020 at 4:38 PM ^
Recall of the dimWhitmer in full blitzkrieg mode thankfully
August 13th, 2020 at 4:50 PM ^
Clever. Like Urban Liar. How's that working out for you ... being clever?
August 13th, 2020 at 11:26 PM ^
It worked out so well that Tony earned the ban-hammer.
August 14th, 2020 at 1:53 PM ^
what are you, 10.
August 13th, 2020 at 1:07 PM ^
It just so weird to be in a country (England) where the idea of big time, money racking, college sports doesn't exist and watch how its just another massive blow to American's ability to sort this health crisis out. The money, politics and racial/sociological undercurrents of this sports vs. pandemic issue in the U.S is just mind-boggling to anyone outside of the country. Its impossible to explain it to anyone over here.
The U.K has been pretty horrible at this too relative to the EU/Asia and yet the gov't still was able to get a handle on this as we head into the restart of schools.
August 13th, 2020 at 3:26 PM ^
I have worked with a very large and diverse contingent of persons from outside the US. One common them I've found is that they don't understand how much of a difference this nation is from their own (mostly) in terms of power structure and scale/diversity of types of communities/municipalities. There is rarely the same type of state vs federal conflict (let alone a situation where state authority would overrule federal). Most other nations are typically more homogeneous (not just ethnically but in terms of the daily life of each locale) than here in the US. On top of all this, no other nation (in my experience) puts as much emphasis on individual rights and privileges as we do here (let alone having the rebellious individualism undercurrent in general society). Exceptions can be found to all of these statements and YMMV, but this is what I've seen thus far in my time here.
August 13th, 2020 at 12:17 PM ^
Answer seems easy enough to me.
August 13th, 2020 at 1:21 PM ^
Agreed no easy answers here. I'm sure the ACC has one though...
August 13th, 2020 at 1:47 PM ^
I am sure that Spicoli could not properly spell half the words in his tweet. If the conferences like the ACC SEC and B12 play, and one or two players get sick, you bet they will sue their school, their conference, the NCAA, the broadcast networks and everyone else who can spell the words college football.
August 13th, 2020 at 11:27 AM ^
This is the behavior some want to excuse by blocking any sort of liability.
The entire MAC is refusing to release any testing data, claiming that they cannot do so due to privacy rules. My questions to the WMU provost about whether they will be releasing campus-wide anonymized data when in-person instruction resumes, so that parents, students, and staff know the status of the pandemic on campus, have been unanswered.
The people pushing kids back into schools and into sports practices at this time are, in my opinion, negligent, and should be treated as such. Hiding behind false privacy claims to obfuscate on-campus infection rates and telling kids to misreport their status is even worse.
August 13th, 2020 at 11:28 AM ^
As much as I'm jonesing for football, I might boycott these conferences and pro teams that plan on going forward with the season. We shouldn't indulge their irresponsible behavior, especially if the cases continue to get worse, the way they have been in those states over the last several weeks. And now the Cowboys want to play with fans? Fuck that shit.
August 13th, 2020 at 11:42 AM ^
What, you're not confident in Jerryworld's "serious, serious air current” and a “naturally-built air flow" to keep everyone safe?
August 13th, 2020 at 12:08 PM ^
I always knew JerryWorld was the Death Star come to life.
August 13th, 2020 at 1:36 PM ^
Comrade, your comment seems ironic coming from you of all people!
/jk
August 13th, 2020 at 11:28 AM ^
At first I was thinking all this would help the SEC/ ACC in recruiting.....
But the more I think about it, in the end it's going help the two good guy academic conferences, or should I call them the Grand Daddy of them all Conferences. We were the first to do the right thing, even if it sucked.