(This post was originally published on LSU Wire.)
It’s already been a rough week for college football, with the Big Ten and the PAC-12 officially cancelling their 2020 season.
But conferences like the Big 12 and SEC have made clear they plan to continue pushing forward to put teams on the field this fall.
Of course, this season will be unlike any we’ve seen before in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and “splash shields” are one thing that’s being tried to protect players from contracting the virus.
Adapt. Adjust. Splash shields ready to go. pic.twitter.com/v0SW1xXA4m
— LSU Football Equip (@LSUFBEquipment) July 31, 2020
They haven’t exactly been well-received, though, and Tulane head coach Willie Fritz recently said his Green Wave had done away with them for the meantime.
His players won’t be wearing them unless the American Athletic Conference forces them to.
“Our players felt like their heads were in an oven,” he said in a report from The Athletic’s Brody Miller.
Tulane coach Willie Fritz said they stopped wearing the splash shields for helmets at today's practice, and unless the conference tells them to wear them they aren't going to.
"Our guys felt like their heads were in an oven."
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) August 12, 2020
Just down the road, LSU football has also been experimenting with the shields, and the players have expressed a similar disdain for them.
Tigers offensive lineman Austin Deculus said it was like “breathing in a Ziploc bag” and linebacker Soni Fonua also expressed concern about breathing in the helmet.
Medical experts have said that wearing a mask can significantly cut down the spread of the coronavirus if everyone wears then for four-to-six weeks, and the concept with the full-face shields is similar.
The question is as to if players will actually be able to make it through a game wearing them this season, especially for teams in the South that deal with high temperatures well into the fall.
The reasoning and intention behind using the shields is solid, but may simply not be reasonable in the end.
