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Colorado State Is Investigating Allegations Of Coronavirus Protocols Not Being Followed

Rams president is looking into if there were protocol violations.

Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire

Was COVID-19 protocol not being adhered to?

The Coloradoan had a bombshell report that the Colorado State football program was not following protocols regarding COVID-19. There were a combined 10 staff and athletes who came forward to talk the newspaper about these violations of how COVID-19 was being handled.

Some of the allegations include having coaches advise players to not alert trainers if a player has COVID-19 symptoms and continue to practice because the loss of players would be a lot for the team to handle. Also, there was the threat of lack of playing time and altering contact tracing reports.

“I believe there is a cover-up going on at CSU,” said a current football player who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “But they could only cover it up so long and now that we have so many cases across athletics, they can’t cover it up anymore. It’s not about the health and safety of the players but about just trying to make money off the players.”

NCAA will establish a phone number and email to allow college athletes, parents or others to report alleged failures of following COVID protocols, @TheAthleticCFB has learned. NCAA will notify school and conference administrators, who will be expected to take immediate action.

— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) August 5, 2020

An unnamed athletic staff member said there were “red flags” and that the administration was looking out more for the coaches than players. There also was a football player who said they practice and was in contact with another who was coughing and showing signs but the one who looked sick didn’t want to because they would not be able to practice.

“I told him he needed to get tested but he really didn’t want to because then he would be out. The next day he is not at practice. (If he tested positive) he already had spread the virus. That’s why a lot of players don’t feel safe at football practice.”

This is not just isolated to the football team as the volleyball was involved. This alleged incident involved four players have lunch and in close quarters for about an hour, and said they did not wear masks at all during that time. One tested positive for COVID-19 and the other three were not quarantined, which the source said the players felt was odd.

The biggest surprise came from the report that was not able to be read and appeared to be a different story, below is via the Coloradoan.

The source said Terry DeZeeuw, associate athletic director for Sports Performance and head athletic trainer, was asked if the volleyball report was available to read. He said no. When asked if the report stated the players admitted to not wearing masks, Dezeeuw said the players told the interviewer that they were wearing masks.

This is a big deal on two fronts. If it changed what the athletes said that they were not wearing masks how can there be trust in coming forward about anything, big or small?

Second, being close to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 for that length of time should be tested and quarantined and that goes for wearing or not wearing a mask because just because you have a mask does not mean you can’t get infected.

Some Players Saying This Is False

As soon as this story came out, there were quite a few Colorado State football players who said this was not the case at all. There are probably a few more who did not express via Twitter.

Nun y’all listen to this man🤣 Farthest from true… https://t.co/B1vU0aGBwh

— tanner hollens (@HollensTanner) August 4, 2020

False 🤦‍♂️, our coaches main priority is our health, they’ve been more than amazing keeping us healthy and following the covid-19 guidelines https://t.co/HjCa4FqNuu

— owen snively (@owen_snively) August 4, 2020

Lots of misinformation. All coaches wear masks at all times. We fill out a symptom questionnaire daily before we are allowed into the facility. They even provided us w/ masks and wash them daily. The athletes/staffers that complained are the same ones not following protocol https://t.co/AeJu3cH3Mw

— Toby McBride (@tobymcb) August 4, 2020

McBride also was quoted in a piece written by the Rams athletic department heaping praises on how the Colorado State football team is handling COVID-19 during and outside of practices.

“Absolutely. Coach Steve Addazio has done a tremendous job of making sure we’re doing just that,” McBride said. “Even at practice, he’s making sure we’re only as close as we need to be when we need to be. He’s really done a great job of stressing social distancing and wearing masks. He’s told us we don’t need to go out and do all those other things, there will be time for that. Ultimately, it’s our goal to play this year, and if we don’t do those things, then it’s not going to happen.”

Name the sources. Cause when I was sick I was urged to call the trainer right away lol. And we have a team meeting every morning stressing the importance of doing the right things. So I’m calling bs https://t.co/sxmMjCwY7q

— Scott Patchan (@scott_patchan) August 4, 2020

Both saying that there were violations and also being supportive and following protocols can be true. Colorado State had voluntary workouts and to help limit exposure to a lot of people, the school, like others, were practicing in groups and not as a full team.

So, it could make sense that some groups were following protocol 100 percent and others were being told something else like how missing practices wold hurt playing time.

With players not all being together for workouts or meetings, they may not have crossed paths with those other assigned workout groups. So, one group was told one thing and another group something else. That is a perfectly reasonable rationale for those saying everything was good and others saying protocol was not followed.