“The virus is very serious, and I take it that way,” Lee Corso said on GameDay.
Amid the continuing controversy surrounding the Big Ten’s and Pac-12’s decisions to not play college football this season, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard offered their support for the two Power 5 conferences bailing on a fall schedule.
During ESPN’s College GameDay preview show Saturday, Corso, Howard, Kirk Herbstreit and David Pollack weighed in on a complex question posed by the show’s host, Rece Davis: Should we be playing college football during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Last month, the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their football seasons with the hope that they’ll be able to play at some point in 2021 (or maybe sooner). But the remaining Power 5 conferences, the SEC, ACC and Big 12, are carrying on with their seasons.
Herbstreit and Pollack said they have no problem with playing football this fall as long as safety measures and precautions are taken to try to keep people healthy. Pollack said he loves that players are given the chance to opt out of the season, while Herbstreit said he’s not at all concerned about his two sons playing at Clemson right now.
“I don’t think we can throw a blanket over this and just say, ‘Yes, be should definitely be playing football!'” Herbstreit said. “Or, ‘No, we should definitely not be playing football!’ I think it varies from region to region.”
But Corso and Howard had different mindsets and explained their perspectives.
Corso said:
“I agree with the Big Ten and the Pac-12 by not playing college football this season because of the ‘What ifs.’ Basically, there are a number of people, thousands of people involved in college football. I would not play football until February 2021.
“I’ll tell you what: The National Football League season would be over and the emphasis on college football [would be higher]. I’d play an abbreviated schedule, and maybe in 10 weeks begin again. I’ll tell you what: I’d rather err on safety than chance. The virus is very serious, and I take it that way.”
Howard was a bit more diplomatic with his answer, but he was not ambiguous. Responding to Herbstreit, the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner explained that if his two sons were in college and playing football, they would opt out. Howard said:
“You can’t throw a blanket on it because you have medial experts on both sides arguing both points: Why they should be playing and why they should not be playing. We’ve seen doctors from different universities make these big statements and then start to retract those statements. So I understand; you really can’t make a blanket statement.
“Personally, I have two sons too. Now, they’re not in college right now, but I would have to say that if they were, I would err on the side of caution and do probably what [Big Ten commissioner] Kevin Warren and [Pac-12 commissioner] Larry Scott did with their conferences. I would do [it] with my sons and tell them that they couldn’t play for the simple fact that you’re dealing with too much medical uncertainty at that point and too many unknown health risks.
“When you look at the numbers too … COVID-19, it affects Black Americans at unusually high and disproportionate rate than other segments of our society. And when you look at the numbers among the kids who have opted out, 60 kids have opted out, David, 60. Eighty percent of those kids are Black. So I would have erred on the side of caution with my sons, and we would’ve sat this one out.”
According to The Athletic‘s tracker, as of Saturday afternoon, 91 players have opted out of the season so far.
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