In a world of First Take, Around The Horn, Pardon The Interruption, and who knows how many other sports talk shows, the worst sin in corporate media is to not have a take.
BE BOLD. BE OPINIONATED. SELL YOURSELF! COME OUT SWINGING! DON’T BACK DOWN! Good television — sexy television — comes from having something strong to say in an eloquent way. To be sure, great television does come from conflict and emotion, presented forcefully and convincingly.
Yet, we can’t have takes all the time. Some situations exist beyond the ability to have a take and sell it hard for the cameras.
The coronavirus pandemic is just such a situation.
The inconvenient truth about COVID-19 — the kind of truth which isn’t easy to admit on television or in a column such as this — is that we are still learning about it. We are not in supreme possession of every last fact needed to counter the virus.
We have some information, yes. We are indeed gaining more information each day and each week. We are piecing together the puzzle, gathering more parts. Yet, we haven’t mastered how to control COVID-19, and to be very clear here, that is not a condemnation of how the United States has handled the coronavirus. No nation save New Zealand and maybe a handful of other outliers has truly contained this virus on a large scale. We don’t have a vaccine yet.
The story of the world’s battle with this pandemic is not a finished story. It is ongoing, and it will continue to play out for several months at the very least. Hopefully we will get a vaccine and herd immunity before too long, but the pandemic will certainly be with us through the coming flu season, our first flu season in which we know the pandemic is part of our lives.
We don’t know how that will play out… which leads me to the heart of this column: It’s extremely important to emphasize how much we still don’t know about this virus.
Yes, there are some things we can comfortably and confidently say about the coronavirus: Bubbles work in team sports. The NBA and NHL have shown that.
Wearing masks — while not a guarantee of reducing spread; it needs to be accompanied by other good behaviors — generally reduces spread. However, some places such as Louisiana do not conveniently fit the larger national narrative around mask wearing and lockdowns. The virus — in some instances — eludes easy categorization or broad, prevailing themes.
In a very polarized country, people can — and do, and will — pick and choose which pieces of information fit their views. This is not unique to liberals or conservatives, to Team Red or Team Blue. It happens pervasively, beyond one ideology or worldview.
Given that reality, we are going to see people focus on details or data points which suit their outlook.
We are seeing this on Twitter with college football and, more precisely, opinions on what is or isn’t safe.
My Trojans Wire colleague, Andy Patton, published a story earlier on Tuesday about Pac-12 medical experts’ input to the conference.
Yet, on Tuesday, we are seeing reports from the ACC and SEC with different medical experts arriving at different conclusions:
“A Duke infectious disease specialist who chairs the ACC’s medical advisory team, confidently said he expects the conference to continue its steady march toward a football season.” https://t.co/FE1mMLstJn
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) August 11, 2020
Auburn Athletics’ team physician Dr. Michael Goodlett & his staff have been testing for heart issues since student-athletes returned to campus earlier this summer.
This was the status as of 7/8/20: ⤵️https://t.co/guJrUvq7lV https://t.co/Wf6w878dIh pic.twitter.com/8L07dwJNeB— Jeff Shearer (@jeff_shearer) August 11, 2020
This parallels another debate which has sharply divided the college football community in recent weeks: the debate over whether athletes are — or aren’t — safer within their football facilities. This has been a point of contention on its own terms, but also in relationship to the question of whether non-athletes should be allowed on campus alongside athletes.
This is NOT an attempt by me to say, “Welp, the science is inconclusive on everything, so nothing matters! Let’s play football! Let’s end lockdowns! No masks!”
No. We ought to continue to prevent people from gathering inside bars and restaurants, focusing on outdoor dining with creative solutions and an emphasis on takeout orders:
Hashiri Sushi in the SoMa district of San Francisco has set up three plastic domes outside the eatery for customers to dine in while enjoying the Michelin Star restaurant’s hours-long dining experience.https://t.co/E614OaEb0z
— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) August 7, 2020
This is not a “nothing matters, just go back to full life” argument.
The point being made here is that while we know SOME things, we don’t know EVERYTHING. This ought to mean we cut our fellow citizens some slack, but more importantly, it ought to mean that we don’t presume to know how football will handle the coronavirus.
This is a college sports website, but we can’t ignore the NFL’s place in this larger situation right now. If you claim to know how well the NFL will — or won’t — handle the coronavirus, you’re not necessarily wrong, but you ARE premature in your statement.
Just withhold comment. Admit you don’t know… because not ONE football game has been played yet in this pandemic, and until a game is played, this is all speculation.
We do not know answers to a lot of questions about the ability to play football in a pandemic.
The sooner all of us — especially journalists — admit that, the better off we will all be.
Meanwhile, college sports power brokers and decision makers need to address these unknowns and work to provide better, solid, more legitimate answers to athletes if we want to have any chance of playing.
“We don’t know” is a responsible answer. It is also an indication that athlete safety can’t yet be guaranteed. Morally and ethically, we ought to spend more time with the implications of that point.