COLUMN: How COVID-19 will change college football forever

[Halincandenza]

As been mentioned before, the football risks associated with CTE are not zero. Do we shut it all down?

That is just a ridiculous comparison that I can't even find the words to say how bad that is.

 

[Raiders70]

Another thing to think about is the now close to 40 million unemployed people in this country (doubt that number stops going up for awhile). They aren’t going to be spending money on CFB games or activities surrounding CFB and Not buying the products advertising on broadcasts.

I think the calculation looks like this: What is the likelihood that even just ONE CFB player contracts COVID from football activities and dies? The X factor is that we know there are guys out there that are compromised (undiagnosed heart issues anyone? Maybe ask Fred.)

if the answer to that question is anything over ZERO, then no playing. It’s one thing for Grandma to Die For The Dow, it’s another for a 19 year old kid to die for our entertainment and what amounts to a pin prick on an elephants ass in terms of the positive economic effects.

Your assuming that college kids wouldn't understand that there would be this small risk of that happening. Maybe the student athlete and their parents should decide if the risk is worth it instead of government.

 

[CTTB78]

That is just a ridiculous comparison that I can't even find the words to say how bad that is.

Oh, the horror! Do you agree then that we have to work from a zero risk base? You can find the words, I'm sure.

 

[mdk2isu]

How many straw man replies will I get to that post? That’s two thus far, Shooter.

Your argument is that unless there is 0 risk, things shouldn't be played. There will never be 0 risk.

 

[cyclonedave25]

Another thing to think about is the now close to 40 million unemployed people in this country (doubt that number stops going up for awhile). They aren’t going to be spending money on CFB games or activities surrounding CFB and Not buying the products advertising on broadcasts.

I think the calculation looks like this: What is the likelihood that even just ONE CFB player contracts COVID from football activities and dies? The X factor is that we know there are guys out there that are compromised (undiagnosed heart issues anyone? Maybe ask Fred.)

if the answer to that question is anything over ZERO, then no playing. It’s one thing for Grandma to Die For The Dow, it’s another for a 19 year old kid to die for our entertainment and what amounts to a pin prick on an elephants ass in terms of the positive economic effects.

There’s an average of 12 football fatalities each year at the HS and College level.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23477766/

The players know the risks involved. And it may be a pin prick on an elephants ass in the grand scheme of the national economy, but its a shot gun slug to the head in terms Local University and AD stability and futures.

 

[BryceC]

One thing that I think is worth discussing is that CW called CFB a “mega business”. The top 25 CFB programs brought in an estimated 2.5 billion gross profit in 2019. For comparison Principal Financial Group also made 2.5 billion gross profit for 2019.

I think CFB gets overvalued. It’s certainly not a “mega business”. Apple made 264 billion last year. That’s a mega business.

If you're measuring impact only by dollars you're doing it wrong.

The cardboard box industry is 20x the size of CFB. Nobody schedules their lives around cardboard boxes. There are no Carboardboxfanatic.com forums.

 

[BryceC]

How many straw man replies will I get to that post? That’s two thus far, Shooter.

It's not a strawman at all. A straw man argument refutes an argument the person didn't make.

Your argument was that we can't tolerate even one death from COVID.

Football is a sport that we know beyond the shadow of a doubt causes brain injury which kills some players in due time and drastically decreases the quality of life for many of them. If it isn't priced into our fandom it should be.

 

[Halincandenza]

Oh, the horror! Do you agree then that we have to work from a zero risk base? You can find the words, I'm sure.

The horror? No. More like the nonsensical comparison!
Can CTE spread like a virus through a football team and the opponent? Will it cause a spread of CTE through the community and campus which will kill some and permanently harm others?
Until there is a vaccine or effective treatment, college athletics should not be played.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Your argument is that unless there is 0 risk, things shouldn't be played. There will never be 0 risk.

That’s 3 thus far, Shooter. Is that what I said? Maybe go back and read the post again (hint: it was COVID specific), or maybe go back and learn to read, not sure which one you need to do first.

 

[Gunnerclone]

There’s an average of 12 football fatalities each year at the HS and College level.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23477766/

The players know the risks involved. And it may be a pin prick on an elephants ass in the grand scheme of the national economy, but its a shot gun slug to the head in terms Local University and AD stability and futures.

Thats 4! I’m going to have enough straw to cover that patch of lawn I’m growing out just from this thread alone.

 

[Halincandenza]

It's not a strawman at all. A straw man argument refutes an argument the person didn't make.

Your argument was that we can't tolerate even one death from COVID.

Football is a sport that we know beyond the shadow of a doubt causes brain injury which kills some players in due time and drastically decreases the quality of life for many of them. If it isn't priced into our fandom it should be.

Man, how many of you don't understand the difference between a virus like Covid 19 and individual physical injuries? And all you did is show you don't understand how it was a strawman and then make the exact same strawman argument.

 

[Gunnerclone]

It's not a strawman at all. A straw man argument refutes an argument the person didn't make.

Your argument was that we can't tolerate even one death from COVID.

Football is a sport that we know beyond the shadow of a doubt causes brain injury which kills some players in due time and drastically decreases the quality of life for many of them. If it isn't priced into our fandom it should be.

Exactly, people are trying to say that my argument is invalid because not COVID things. Seems to be made of straw doesn’t it? How does CTE deaths = COVID deaths? This is for anyone?

 

[madguy30]

a lot of this is on the schools. The technology is available to have remote learning and homework packets could be produced and turned in on a weekly basis. Would it be as good as going to school in person? No..It wouldnt, but I think its a disgrace that most of these school districts show no creativity and refuse to have the students do any mandatory homework or talk to them via Zoom or some other kind of interactive video platform.

You act like all of these things are attainable for everyone equally. There are students that don't have internet. There are students that don't have ways to get the packets to the schools. Some had to go live with a different family member or someone else because of other circumstances. Many are in situations where having a roof over their head and a meal is probably going to be a little more important than some packet. Some may not even have running water.

The same could be said for college students that had to go home.

Putting together a full on effective virtual learning curriculum is such a short time frame with so many unknowns is unrealistic. There's plenty of teachers that are not technologically ready and have had to learn a lot in a short amount of time. Improvements should be made for fall for tracking and that is something that the districts should figure out.

Also turning in the packets every week ups the chances of spreading this virus thingy.

 

[jmb]

Thanks boss, appreciate your insights as always. I think it would all be guesstimates, like when See Des Moines says that the AAU championships will provide 30 million (or whatever amount) to the local economy. Obviously there’s a “loss” there to local business for game days (both home and away). Then like you noted it trickles all the way down to advertising on even local TV and radio stations for their “Gameday programs” or “postgame show”. You could even get so micro as to figure a loss for the DOTs of states that have toll roads and people not traveling to games. It’s almost impossible to quantify because it becomes so granular. I fully take your point and get where you’re coming from.

I think people are so excited for a CFB season to happen but the “there’s so much money involved that state funded and ran universities would put fan and athletes lives in danger to have the season” is a bit overblown.

There is solid research on this. No need to guess on it.

 

[Raiders70]

How many school age kids actually are motivated to learn? I know I wasn’t and I was one of the better students. As you get older and more specialized I’m not sure it’s so much an issue but the drain on primary education would be horrendous if we had no school for 5 years as the person posed.[/QU

Another thing to think about is the now close to 40 million unemployed people in this country (doubt that number stops going up for awhile). They aren’t going to be spending money on CFB games or activities surrounding CFB and Not buying the products advertising on broadcasts.

I think the calculation looks like this: What is the likelihood that even just ONE CFB player contracts COVID from football activities and dies? The X factor is that we know there are guys out there that are compromised (undiagnosed heart issues anyone? Maybe ask Fred.)

if the answer to that question is anything over ZERO, then no playing. It’s one thing for Grandma to Die For The Dow, it’s another for a 19 year old kid to die for our entertainment and what amounts to a pin prick on an elephants ass in terms of the positive economic effects.

So almost 50000 people a year die in car accidents a year in the US. Should we ban cars?Life is not risk free. Pretty sure there is about a 100% chance we are all going to die from something. People have gone off the deep end when it comes to Covid19 and the idea that nothing else matters but stopping it completely. The "cure" is going to be 100x worse than the disease if people don't start having some perspective.

 

[Halincandenza]

So almost 50000 people a year die in car accidents a year in the US. Should we ban cars?Life is not risk free. Pretty sure there is about a 100% chance we are all going to die from something. People have gone off the deep end when it comes to Covid19 and the idea that nothing else matters but stopping it completely. The "cure" is going to be 100x worse than the disease if people don't start having some perspective.

Dumb

 

[madguy30]

I get their stand. The intermediate goal should be to figure out how to get more poor kids access to the technology. I guess in the short term I think it makes sense to educate the 90% of the kids that do have access. I would rather have a small percentage of kids fall behind and figure out a way to help them catch up then what they are doing. Convenient excuse to do nothing for these kids while they all still get paid.

This is a very, very blind and uninformed statement.

 

[madguy30]

So almost 50000 people a year die in car accidents a year in the US. Should we ban cars?Life is not risk free. Pretty sure there is about a 100% chance we are all going to die from something. People have gone off the deep end when it comes to Covid19 and the idea that nothing else matters but stopping it completely. The "cure" is going to be 100x worse than the disease if people don't start having some perspective.

I love how these statements are still made while we're approaching 100,000 deaths in 4 months. JFC.

We're really not figuring it out.

 

[cycloneG]

So almost 50000 people a year die in car accidents a year in the US. Should we ban cars?Life is not risk free. Pretty sure there is about a 100% chance we are all going to die from something. People have gone off the deep end when it comes to Covid19 and the idea that nothing else matters but stopping it completely. The "cure" is going to be 100x worse than the disease if people don't start having some perspective.

The car accident straw man again? At least be original when building a straw man.

 

[madguy30]

Thats 4! I’m going to have enough straw to cover that patch of lawn I’m growing out just from this thread alone.

But AIDS and sharks!!!!