Ryan Glasspiegel
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Jeff Brohm, the head coach of Purdue, sent out a comprehensive plan for the Big Ten to play football in the Spring and Fall in 2021. At first glance it feels wholly unrealistic based on the volume of games and practices that players would have to endure.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg shared screengrabs of the plan:
If you didn’t feel like reading all that, Pat Forde tweeted a quick summary and former NFL offensive lineman and friend of Outkick Geoff Schwartz quote-tweeted with justifiable sarcasm about how safe it is for players:
So in this calendar year, players would have pads on in Jan, Feb, March, April, possibly May… then (Aug depending on camp) Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec … player health and safety! https://t.co/2YiNE7k4ra
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) August 13, 2020
The plan has them playing 18 games in a calendar year, plus playoffs. Bananas.
Compound this with the facts that a) it’s unlikely a vaccine will be widespread enough by January such that it can get gobbled up by thousands of young, healthy college football players, b) it’s unlikely the virus is going away by that point, and c) it’s hard to imagine Big Ten country will be in a better position with the virus when it’s cold out and flu season is thrown in than when it’s warmer outside.
Players should be up in arms over this plan from Jeff Brohm and should vigorously push back against it.
The big lie is that there will be no spring football. The big ten and PAC 12 are kidding themselves. They have screwed over their conferences this year, and for the foreseeable future. You made a bad decision you rolled over and took it. Now, lay in the bed you created. Any donor asked to fund this debacle should reply “do to the uncertainty and risk” of the corona virus I will be withholding my donation to your university until we can reach a level of certainty that merits my contribution to your program.
Just because you call it a plan doesn’t mean it has any basis in reality. Purdue hasn’t been relevant in the Big 10 in forever and this just demonstrates a coach who doesn’t really understand what is going on.
I hope this comes back to bite the political decisions of the Big 10 and Pac-12, and all the best players now look to the Big 12, SEC and ACC to actually play football. Lame and scared decisions being made. There is no way the commissioners and presidents actually think it is safer to play up to 18 games in one calendar year than it is to come down with nothing more than a common cold for 99.9% of people between 17-25 years of age. Get real.
A head coach put out a plan on scheduling the season? So what. Has about as much merit as my plan. They aren’t playing 2 seasons next year.
Trial balloon #1.
“Here, Jeff. Sign this.”
“What is it?”
“Doesn’t matter. Sign.”
Does Coronavirus spread more in the cold weather? It seems to spread much more than the flu virus does in the summer, so it may not be correct to assume it behaves like the flu.