Don’t lie to yourself. You want college football back, and you want it back badly. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be browsing this site right now. It’s OK because we on the staff want it back, too.
But Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander, who played at Northwestern, rightfully reminds us that college football players are being asked to do more than most of us right now. The result is a higher risk of them and their coaches contracting COVID-19. Some universities have recognized this to the point where they’re requiring players to sign waivers so that they won’t blame their school if they get sick.
As we see most states increase their number of cases, some more than others, it’s worth questioning whether we really should be pressuring these kids to go out and play a game that requires close physical contact for our amusement. In spite of all the countdowns that this and other sites are doing for the season, we can’t forget that college football is not a guarantee in 2020. If it gets bad enough, we’ll be right back to the sports-starved country we’ve been for the past three-and-a-half months. Then again, maybe that should be the preemptive course of action.