With COVID-19 around, it makes absolutely no sense to play sports in SC this fall
Look I love sports.
I have followed them for all of my life.
And I wrote about them for several years of my career.
All that said I’d love someone to answer this question for me:
With COVID-19 still taking a severe toll in this state, why are we even thinking of allowing college and high school sports to be played in South Carolina this fall?
Oh, and I want a persuasive answer to my question.
You know, an answer that goes beyond “Well, we just gotta play sports this fall! We just gotta!!”
Before you answer my question, let me help you out with some relevant facts at the moment:
▪ COVID-19 remains a major pandemic in this state, and we’re still coming to grips with what that means.
▪ Some school districts in our state — most notably the Beaufort County School District — will only offer online classes at the start of the 2020-21 school year because they still don’t feel it’s totally safe to provide in-person classroom instruction.
▪ The only two professional sports that have been able to conduct games over a sustained period — and avoid having to cancel contests because of athletes contracting COVID-19 — are playing their matches in isolated bio-secure bubbles.
▪ Despite being armed with multi-billionaire owners, multi-millionaire players and a thick manual full of coronavirus protocols created to keep everyone safe, Major League Baseball has already had to postpone multiple games because of positive COVID-19 tests (including 20 on one team alone).
▪ College athletic conferences and universities across the country are canceling their fall sports left and right because they’re rightly concerned about the ramifications of having student-athletes play while COVID-19 still rages across America.
It makes no sense
Come to think of it, don’t answer my question.
I already know the answer.
The idea of playing college and high school sports this fall in this state amid COVID-19 makes absolutely no sense.
None.
Period.
It’s an idea based on nothing more than fervently hoping that if we just start playing games, everything will turn out OK.
That’s it.
So when are some people in positions of difference-making responsibility going to realize this? When are they going to start yelling out, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, we shouldn’t be doing this right now”?
And could they please open their mouths soon?
It’s outrageous, for example, that the SEC — the athletic conference that includes USC — actually put together a lengthy football schedule for its teams to play during a planned 2020 season.
But what’s even more galling is that if the SEC doesn’t go through with this madness and eventually cancels its football season, it will only be because it’s been shamed into doing the right thing through peer pressure from other entities that thankfully possess a proper sense of perspective about what’s at stake.
No sports, no way
I know, I know.
Whenever you forcefully call for taking COVID-19 seriously in this state, you’re sure to get people accusing you of “being condescending” or “hyping up fear.”
For example, I’m still rolling my eyes at the foam-mouthed email I got that castigated The State Editorial Board for a recent editorial calling for Gov. Henry McMaster to order face masks to be worn statewide; in the email, the writer accused me of being a “Nazi-thinking clown.”
Yes, it’s come to that.
But, come on.
It’s not condescending to say that in the midst of a pandemic that involves a deadly respiratory-based illness that we’re still not close to having under full control, college and high school sports shouldn’t be played in South Carolina right now
It’s common sense.
And it’s time to show some by letting go of the idea of having high school and college kids play sports this fall.
Let’s just get it out of our minds, already.
No sports.
No way.
It’s that simple.
At least it should be.
Opinion Editor Roger Brown can be reached at (803) 771-8464 or by email at rjbrown@thestate.com. Follow him on Twitter @RBrown_SCOpin.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 6:54 AM with the headline "With COVID-19 around, it makes absolutely no sense to play sports in SC this fall."