Apparently 5 Alabama Players Tested Positive for SARS-CoV-2
There's the link to the tweet.
Tested Tuesday, practiced together Wednesday, results Thursday.
How's this going to work now with coaches and mandated isolation?
Football is going to be a slow mo train wreck this year.
There’s little evidence of outdoor spread because the countries that got it under control did so in the winter months (and still have banned outdoor spectator sports). And the countries that haven’t gotten it under control don’t have nearly the contact tracing to know how much spread comes from outdoors.
No evidence does not equal evidence to the contrary. Is it likely that it transmits less well outdoors than indoors? Sure. But that should be the extent of your conclusion. (Not to mention it clearly ignores that you don’t just teleport 10-15k people into the stands, but that they are in proximity with each other when they enter, and even moreso when they leave.
Really? Come on, you think that's a hard task?
So they were tested, practiced, then got results
somebody dropped the ball there...
It’s almost like they want it to run through the team before September.
It's a pox party ova here
That damn Saban is always one step ahead....
Smart coaches are going to let everyone on team get it before the season so no one misses time. All these kids are going to get it, if they haven't already. They are kids in peak athletic health and they know it doesn't hurt their age/health bracket except in very extreme cases.
If I'm a coach, my biggest concern is to keep it from spreading to the coaches too.
Yep, unfortunately I have no faith in Harbaugh to execute this strategy. He too desperately wants to be liked by the media. He'll shut down practice the second anybody tests positive, and we'll have players sitting out games all year because of it.
I agree with you. I like Harbaugh. I think he truly wants the best for his players, but hubris affects all those at the top of their profession.
I think he is an athlete who played at Michigan, where a bunch of really smart people go to school. Somewhere along the line he decided that via the transitive property he must also be a really smart person, and therefore must act like the really smart people who go to a school like U-M.
The smartest people in the room don't always win. In fact, they rarely win. The most driven people win.
May sound wrong but it's actually good news if most do
Makes sense for a bunch of young athletes.
It would basically solve the 'wHAt aBoUt thE peOpLe ThEyll iNfECT' problem
Take into effect who gets the virus on the team, and how it affects them before passing judgement on if there should be a 2020 college football season...
For people age 18-22, most will never even show symptoms if they catch the virus, and the few who do show symptoms will have mild symptoms. If its only the teenage-players who mainly catch the virus, why would you cancel the season? It makes no sense. The virus does not effect them.
The bigger issue that could affect the season is how the virus spreads among the OLDER coaching staff, who are more likely to show real symptoms and maybe even have serious complications. If the virus runs rampant among the older staff, that could cause the NCAA to not have a season. However, there is another side to the "coaching staff" coin....
The coaching staff are not teenagers. They are full-blown, responsible adults who know the risks they are taking by constantly being around younger people who wont show symptoms and can easily spread the virus. If I am the NCAA, I still hold the season in empty stadiums, and I make every member of the coaching staff sign an iron-clad waiver stating they know the risks of coaching younger people who may have the virus, will likely will never show symptoms, and may spread the virus to them.
Dont shut down the season due to a virus which rarely affects teenagers. Do consider cancelling the season if the coaching staffs would be in serious jeopardy.
I think we as a country need to quit panicking everytime somebody gets the virus. Most people are hardly going to be affected by it. We need to move towards a system where we focus on protecting those who are at risk. So 5 players got it, it was bound to happen. Now what are we going to do to address keeping it from at risk coaches and staff, that is what needs to be addressed.
I agree with you but let's see if there will be huge spikes in COVID cases after 1-2 weeks of massive protests all across this nation. We'll really know very soon. (Not to change the subject)
In this case "mild" means not requiring hospitalization. I have a friend who had a "mild" case and had a fever for almost a month. She ran a marathon a year ago and now gets winded walking up the stairs. Mild doesn't mean it's a cold. Mild means it is the flu on steroids.
That's not necessarily true for everyone - especially college-age people. A large portion of carriers of this virus are asymptomatic.
A sample size of 1 is not convincing.
If it were, you'd still be trumped by a sample size of 5 in this instance, given (from the tweet): "Source tells me that no players showed symptoms/signs..."
As with the Oklahoma State players yesterday. That's a sample size of 8, all with no symptoms.
Now if you want to go into data from the thousands and hundreds of thousands, it will tell you that for people 18-24 the risk is low.
Do the players have to sign that form too or do they not have a choice in this matter? I agree that most people aged 18-22 won't show symptoms and likely be okay. However there is a very small percentage of people in that age group that will have serious complications especially anyone with a pre-existing health condition or idk... maybe someone who is over 300+ lbs like a defensive lineman?
So basically you are saying make the kids who are not being paid to play a gladiator sport take the risk, and give the millionaire coaches the option to sit out?
Linemen may be fat but they still have fantastic cardiovascular fitness. I don't know anything about you, but statistically speaking, there's a good chance that literally every single lineman on Michigan's roster can run a faster mile than you.
Everybody has the option to sit out. They've always had the option to sit out. I don't know what your complaint is here.
My complaint was that the OP's proposal made it seem like the coaches were the only ones that were taking on any risk, which is not true. Statistically speaking, yes the players are in a lower risk group but they still run the risk of having a severe complication, including death, from COVID-19. My point was that if you're going to give coaches the option to opt-out due to the risk then the student-athletes should have the same option, scholarship still guaranteed.
Also, as a competitive runner, I would welcome challenges from all lineman (both sides of the ball) in a mile race.
I’m really intrigued by the quote “statistically speaking, there's a good chance that literally every single lineman on Michigan's roster can run a faster mile than you”. Where did you find stats on mile times for offensive linemen?
No, you don't get it. If they give it to another player and that player gives it to his roommate and his roommate goes to the grocery store at the same time as my gram gram, gram gram is guaranteed to die. We need to shut down football so that gram gram can still go to the grocery store. Only a heartless rethuglican government would expect its immuno-compromised citizens to get their groceries delivered in order to prevent complete economic collapse.
No players will die from this, and neither will their family members if they properly distance. Same goes for their coaches.
IT'S HAPPENING.
You can't properly distance if you live with someone. That's why there's been so much spread among family members around the world. But I'm sure you'll tell me your sarcasm went over my head.
It was my understanding that college students sometimes live in dorms and their family visits them periodically.
I would agree that players are in the age range less likely to have serious complications from this.
To say that no players will die at all during the months/years of the COVID epidemic is rather foolhardy. Men in their teens and 20s, some in,excellent health, are dying - not many, but it has happened and will continue to some extent.
I'll be here to tell you I told you so after we have a full season with some fans. And the best part about it won't be me being right, it'll be that society cleared another hurdle to move on from this.
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So what is your preferred skin care product? You'd know pretty well with all the hand wringing you've been doing on here.
I see. Sorry if the pragmatism was upsetting for you.
But life and policy decisions are about managing risk. It is now a fact that more people die from flu under 24 than with Covid. The risk is exceedingly low for players. Again, less than 100 people under 25 have died from Covid. Statistically that is minuscule risk.
I'm not going to debate the morbidity of the novel coronavirus (although it is curious that actual health experts and professional epidemiologists are the ones raising the alarm - perhaps their opinions should matter).
Considering how the policy reaction has been at various levels, especially when some/many universities are not even committed to having students back on campus yet, the timely resumption of full contact school sports (especially those with large teams, staff, and crowds) is far from a given... and this is all assuming there isn't any kind of spike outbreak of second wave before then.
I would love to see it happen again, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.
I think the only way we're having a season is if folks accept that there will be players with cases and that people just accept the risks.
I think the chances of that happening are low, but is the only way we're having a season. Otherwise the other posters are right, the season will quickly become a farce.
I am not saying this is what should happen, but I think it's the only way we're getting through the season, absent a cure/vaccine.
And there is probably zero chance that the whole country is going to go on another 10-12 week lock down. That would absolutely destroy the economy and in all probability cause a long-term depression.
It doesn't matter if it's a government ordered lockdown or not.
If there is another outbreak, a significant percentage of people are basically not going to leave the house (certainly not to attend a football game). That was shown as the number of people going to sit-down restaurants dropped 50-plus% the week before shutdowns began.
It is 100% in Alabama's (and every other program) interest to get this right. If they want to have even 25% of fans in the stands, they can't have outbreaks on their teams. If they have a single player death (very, very unlikely considering the age & health of athletes but you don't want to increase the odds unnecessarily) b/c of exposure at a game or practice, the games themselves will be off. It completely, unforgivably stupid that they tested the players and didn't wait for the results before letting them practice together.
Trust is a key in this process, and they just lowered it for no good reason.
I think a lot more people had no clue what this disease was going to do so they skipped out on stuff due to an overabundance of caution or panic. Maybe a combination of both. Clearly people under 50 are not affected nearly as much as people over 70.
No, you're missing my point -- if businesses (like college football, which is a multi-billion dollar business) don't take steps to assure its employees, workers/athletes and public that it's safe, a "government lockdown" won't be their problem from a participation and revenue perspective.
Patrick Surtain Sr (dad of Alabama's star CB) was nervous about sending his son back for workouts. He was given assurance it was safe for his son to return b/c "they are way ahead of the curve in everything they do." How do you think he feels now after Alabama's screw up of such a basic safety protocol of allowing people to practice together before test results were in? I know I wouldn't be happy if I was promised my son wouldn't be put at undue risk; I'd be pissed.
https://alabama.rivals.com/news/after-initial-hesitation-alabama-db-to-report-for-voluntary-workouts
Same thing for fans in the stands. My hope is that at least 25% of capacity can be used in the fall. But if Michigan Stadium promises people will be safe because they'll take all these public-health informed pre-cautions (e.g. social distancing; masks for workers) and then reports come in, "Well, actually, they let people sit wherever they wanted; I had guys move down & they were yelling right next to me all day" there will be fewer people attending as they'll decide it's not worth the risk. If, however, reports come back that safety protocols were followed, everyone was respectful but it was still fun, etc, then they'll sell out that 25% easy and there actually will be a good secondary market.
People are going to do things and have to do things that come with a risk of infection. People are going to get this virus, lots of them. The question is, is college football worth these risks? But that discussion can only be had after accepting the previous reality.
Also we players and coaches have to choose between losing their jobs / scholarships or participating and signing a liability waiver. What provisions will be made for those who aren't comfortable returning? Will there be pressure to participate anyways?
Well that's above my pay grade but I would say people who aren't comfortable shouldn't be forced to participate. But that's part of the point too, there is almost no scenario where those people will have zero risk. Depending on their situation, it's possible participating will not really increase their risk.
You're a power-5 coach on the hot seat. You've got playoff level talent but you just haven't gotten it done the last few years.
Halfway through the season you're undefeated and your biggest rival is coming up on Saturday. On Thursday the team doctor comes into your office and tells you your first and second string quarterbacks tested positive for coronavirus, though they have no symptoms. No-one else has tested positive so far. They've spent the last week sweating in the weight room with several other teammates, crammed into the film room with the offensive skill players (by the way your offensive coordinator is 59, obese, and has three other risk factors), and screaming audibles while leaning over the back of your all-conference center in what would be considered a gross violation of personal space in any other context.
You check the schedule again. Next week your opponent is the worst team in your conference, and the week after that is a bye.
What do you do?
Presumably, you've been testing the whole team/coaching staff all along, so you'd know if their teammates are positive or not. It sounds like only your two QBs are positive. That sucks. You sit them and play the others.
Forced to play your 3rd string QB, you lose 21-10. You finish the season with two losses and miss the playoffs again. The fan grumbling finally wins out and you are fired. You circulate your resume to minor conference schools and NFL coordinator positions, secure in the knowledge that you did the right thing.
The end.
"You're a power-5 coach on the hot seat. You've got playoff level talent but you just haven't gotten it done the last few years."
I stopped reading after this, because as a Michigan fan, we all know which team you are talking about. And we all know the outcome. We beat the shitty ass team with our 3rd or 4th stringer and then eventually lose 59-21 to Ohio State.
Ugh.
How fucking dumb are the people in Alabama (...don't answer that)?
You are the elite program in the nation. You have all the talent in the world. You have as much media covering you as anybody. You are an example to other programs.
How do you test people on Tuesday and not wait until after you get the results back before you let people practice together!?! What is the hurry?
The freaking NBA is taking multiple weeks before they let people practice together. These Roll Tide dipshits couldn't wait two days?
Someone should literally be fired over this.
Virus cases across the U.S. is still going up. Hospitalizations are up. Doctors are already saying a wave 2 is inevitable at this point - especially with so many people not wearing masks. The concern has shifted towards a wave 2 picking up steam in the fall with flu on the rise. It could get ugly, but people don’t really care I guess. Current actions are going to produce ugly results.
Virus cases are actually going down. Death rate is going down. There is a bump up that will followed by another slide down. A few states are going up due to more testing (i.e. Texas).
Why do so many people lie about cases going up?
Is it not lying if you don’t know it’s a lie?
Looking at the headlines you would think the second wave is already in full swing. I saw a video teaser last week from one of the traditional networks touting “state X has highest number of new cases ever just as reopening begins!!” I went on Worldometer and saw that this was indeed true....but that the number of new cases was only slightly higher (like 25-50), that they had significantly upped daily testing, and that they were still only at a fraction of the rate that the hard hit states were seeing.
Something something lies and damn statistics.