SEC holds call with players over COVID risks

[CrimsonEyeshade]

Essential that the league did this, but understandably the players pushed back on the risks. What if it were your children, one of the players asks?

Here.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Players asking good questions.

I want CFB, but I'm not comfortable with the decision makers being those who won't be potentially exposed to COVID via the games while financially benefitting from them.

 

[CrimsonEyeshade]

This is starting to take on a gladiator feel. Not a good look. And the NCAA is mute.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

That article was a hit piece, holding the SEC out as a bumbling outlier when every P5 conference is doing the exact same thing.

I'm not saying everybody does it makes it OK, and I'm not defending football in September. I believe we shouldn't even think about football until COVID is under control...which it obviously isn't.

Here's what I wrote to a friend. Sorry for the length.
_____________

The article really got under my skin because the authors joined a long line of intellectually lazy writers (out of respect for journalists, I won't use that term) who had a pre-conceived narrative, got the perfect vignette they wanted to confirm their prejudices -- yes, prejudices -- and conveniently ignored the next questions banging to beat all get-out inside my head -- Is this an SEC problem, or a college football problem? What is everybody else doing?

Please understand, I'm not saying that "everybody does it" is a defense. I'm saying that to single one group for ridicule (and that's what that article did), when other equally prominent institutions are doing exactly the same thing, is intellectually lazy to the point of being purposely dishonest. It paints an incomplete and highly inaccurate picture that, given the pedigree necessary to write for the Washington Post, I have to believe is intentional.

It is yet another violation of the public trust that newspapers once held, but sadly do no longer.

I 100% agree that there shouldn't be football this fall. And in the end, I think that's what will happen. Might happen before the end of September, maybe only after 2-4 games wherein whole teams get infected, but it's coming. So I have no problem with the idea of no football this year.

What I hate with a passion is painting only the SEC as a bunch of money-grubbing overpaid bureaucrats, who fumble around with no answers to quite legitimate questions, all the while ignoring an inquiry into how the Big 10 and Pac 12, Big 12 and ACC (all currently going 10-game or more seasons, with varying tweaks on conference only) are faring.

And the part about college presidents, "...who rely on college football for prestige and revenue..." is a condescending and elitist slap in the face, ignoring the academic achievements of 14 universities.

Also, how is the unfairness of doing all the right things, only to be infected by somebody who did all the wrong ones, the sole province of football players? Why is that not equally unfair for each and every student?

And the backhanded slam at Greg Sankey's $2.5 million salary conveniently ignores the fact that he's the lowest-paid of the P5 Commissioners, and it's not all that close. Took me about 2 minutes to find that out, Mr. and Ms. Investigative Reporter.

But back to the call: Did the other P5 conferences simply not have a videoconference with players? If not, why not?

If they did they have videoconferences, what was the content? Did their players raise similar concerns? I'm betting they would have. Did their administrators have better answers than the SEC's? I'm betting they wouldn't have.

So is this issue isolated to the knuckle-dragging SEC? Or is it a college football issue, with the SEC, Big 10 and Pac 12, Big 12 and ACC as Exhibits A, B, C, D and E? If the latter (and I think it is the latter) why not one single stinkin' word about the bigger picture?

The next questions are screaming so loudly and so clearly that writers at this level could have ignored them only intentionally, and that hacks me off no end. It was an intellectually lazy, prejudiced, hit piece in which editors should have done what they're paid to do....intervene and force the obvious next questions.

What hacks me off even more, but mostly makes me sad, is that ethical failures at multiple levels no longer surprise me.

 

[NationalTitles18]

I disagree, 4Q - just because someone discusses one example and keeps their thoughts concise to that example does not mean anything other than they were discussing the one example. Sometimes it helps to be succinct.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I disagree, 4Q - just because someone discusses one example and keeps their thoughts concise to that example does not mean anything other than they were discussing the one example. Sometimes it helps to be succinct.

Regarding succinct-ness, I agree. I’m (obviously) not the best example, but I do value it.

On the other, we’ll have to agree to disagree. The article paints an incomplete picture, and based on some of the snide comments in it, I believe it is intentional.

 

[CoachJeff]

“What if it were one of your kids?”

Well, for me, my kids are going back to school in a couple of weeks and we filled out our local sports league’s survey indicating we want to do indoor volleyball this fall.

 

[B1GTide]

“What if it were one of your kids?”

Well, for me, my kids are going back to school in a couple of weeks and we filled out our local sports league’s survey indicating we want to do indoor volleyball this fall.

Hope it works out for you.

 

[CrimsonEyeshade]

Disagree. The SEC is king. The reporter received a transcript of the conference call. For the first time we heard a variety of feelings from — and this is radical — the actual kids. And it sounds like some of the kids are scared.

That article was a hit piece, holding the SEC out as a bumbling outlier when every P5 conference is doing the exact same thing.

I'm not saying everybody does it makes it OK, and I'm not defending football in September. I believe we shouldn't even think about football until COVID is under control...which it obviously isn't.

Here's what I wrote to a friend. Sorry for the length.
_____________

The article really got under my skin because the authors joined a long line of intellectually lazy writers (out of respect for journalists, I won't use that term) who had a pre-conceived narrative, got the perfect vignette they wanted to confirm their prejudices -- yes, prejudices -- and conveniently ignored the next questions banging to beat all get-out inside my head -- Is this an SEC problem, or a college football problem? What is everybody else doing?

Please understand, I'm not saying that "everybody does it" is a defense. I'm saying that to single one group for ridicule (and that's what that article did), when other equally prominent institutions are doing exactly the same thing, is intellectually lazy to the point of being purposely dishonest. It paints an incomplete and highly inaccurate picture that, given the pedigree necessary to write for the Washington Post, I have to believe is intentional.

It is yet another violation of the public trust that newspapers once held, but sadly do no longer.

I 100% agree that there shouldn't be football this fall. And in the end, I think that's what will happen. Might happen before the end of September, maybe only after 2-4 games wherein whole teams get infected, but it's coming. So I have no problem with the idea of no football this year.

What I hate with a passion is painting only the SEC as a bunch of money-grubbing overpaid bureaucrats, who fumble around with no answers to quite legitimate questions, all the while ignoring an inquiry into how the Big 10 and Pac 12, Big 12 and ACC (all currently going 10-game or more seasons, with varying tweaks on conference only) are faring.

And the part about college presidents, "...who rely on college football for prestige and revenue..." is a condescending and elitist slap in the face, ignoring the academic achievements of 14 universities.

Also, how is the unfairness of doing all the right things, only to be infected by somebody who did all the wrong ones, the sole province of football players? Why is that not equally unfair for each and every student?

And the backhanded slam at Greg Sankey's $2.5 million salary conveniently ignores the fact that he's the lowest-paid of the P5 Commissioners, and it's not all that close. Took me about 2 minutes to find that out, Mr. and Ms. Investigative Reporter.

But back to the call: Did the other P5 conferences simply not have a videoconference with players? If not, why not?

If they did they have videoconferences, what was the content? Did their players raise similar concerns? I'm betting they would have. Did their administrators have better answers than the SEC's? I'm betting they wouldn't have.

So is this issue isolated to the knuckle-dragging SEC? Or is it a college football issue, with the SEC, Big 10 and Pac 12, Big 12 and ACC as Exhibits A, B, C, D and E? If the latter (and I think it is the latter) why not one single stinkin' word about the bigger picture?

The next questions are screaming so loudly and so clearly that writers at this level could have ignored them only intentionally, and that hacks me off no end. It was an intellectually lazy, prejudiced, hit piece in which editors should have done what they're paid to do....intervene and force the obvious next questions.

What hacks me off even more, but mostly makes me sad, is that ethical failures at multiple levels no longer surprise me.

 

[Isaiah 63:1]

Disagree. The SEC is king. The reporter received a transcript of the conference call. For the first time we heard a variety of feelings from — and this is radical — the actual kids. And it sounds like some of the kids are scared.

• How and why did you dredge this up now, two years later?
• With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that kids being in school and playing sports was/is a lesser risk to their health than the social and mental health effects of the then-politically-preferred alternative.
  • @NationalTitles18 is forbidden from disagreeing with me on this unless he wants his username to revert to NationalTitles17

 

[We_are_Bama]

A blast from the past. Oh how I don't miss the pre-vaccine days of Covid. The insanity of 2020. May we never see anything like that again.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Let's let this one stay in bed, we've got a fresh season upon us.

If y'all wish to discuss it just let me know and I'll move it to non-sports so you can continue there.

RTR

 

[BamaMoon]

Ban the user who resurrected this nightmare

 

[BhamToTexas]

I think this was just one of the phantom threads we have seen. It says it was last edited in 2020, but then posted today. I don't think it was resurrected on purpose.

 

[NationalTitles18]

• How and why did you dredge this up now, two years later?
• With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that kids being in school and playing sports was/is a lesser risk to their health than the social and mental health effects of the then-politically-preferred alternative.
  • @NationalTitles18 is forbidden from disagreeing with me on this unless he wants his username to revert to NationalTitles17

I'll just ask you to come over to NS and provide solid and sound evidence for your claims and leave it at that.