Football
I am not really that much of a football guy. I coached for forty years: Cross Country and Track. Football was my “escape” after a Cross Country meet on Saturday, or my way to recover on Sunday afternoon. And when the Cincinnati Bengals, my “hometown” NFL team, had their usual disastrous season, I could turn football off. There were enough frustrations with my own teams on Saturday without more on Sunday.
Football was also a “part of the job” as a Dean of Students in the local high school. Friday nights were work nights. I seldom saw the game: I was busy making sure that the “fight under the bleachers” didn’t happen, and that the kids smoking dope in the woods got surprised. Away games were better. I’d get a chance to see our kids play, and maybe scout out a new “track star” for the spring.
The Buckeyes
But I live near Columbus, Ohio; home to THE (I think that’s copyrighted) OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. If you have any knowledge of college football at all, you know that OSU IS FOOTBALL!!! And if you live here in town, and want to be a part of any random conversation, you better have a clue what’s going on with the BUCKEYES. Otherwise, you’re doomed to talking about Ohio weather and traffic construction.
So I have a passing knowledge of college football, and a little better understanding of the NFL. Both are struggling in this year of pandemic: struggling to find a way to get on the field. The Buckeyes just suspended their voluntary on-campus workouts for seven sports teams: football, men’s and women’s basketball, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball. An undisclosed number of athletes have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Ivy League has already decided: no sports in the fall of 2020. And the Big Ten, the conference for Ohio State, Michigan, and twelve other major schools (I know, that’s fourteen) has called for League games only, without non-league opponents through this fall season. That puts the start of the college season for them near October, buying time to see what’s going to happen.
Cash Talks
But keep this in mind: the Ivy League isn’t making money on football. But for many of the Big Ten schools, Football is cash. For OSU it was $57 million last year, with over $31 million in ticket sales at their stadium, the Horseshoe. So for them, this is about football, athletes, fans, and money, money, money.
The NFL doesn’t plan to open summer training until August, and the schedule is still flexible. They, like the NBA and baseball, will try to put their players in a bubble, and keep COVID out. They’ll need some luck for that.
The pro sports could make enough money on television revenues to survive playing to empty stadiums. If, and that’s the BIG IF, they can keep their players, coaches, and other personnel COVID free in their bubble. But college football doesn’t have the same revenue structure. There is a whole lot of TV money, but it’s not like ticket sales profits at Ohio State, or Michigan, or Wisconsin, or Penn State.
So the Athletic Directors need fans in the stands. And the fans sure would like to be there, as hundreds of thousands fill the Horseshoe, the Big House, Camp Randall, or Beaver Stadium. We used to call that a great college game day, but right now there’s a new term for it: a super spreader event.
Politics Aside
Gene Smith, the Athletic Director of Ohio State, led his coaches in urging folks to wear masks if they want to see sports in the fall (Eleven Warriors). All of the political debate about masks aside, Smith is trying to make wearing a mask a sign of Buckeye loyalty. Scientists are clear: the current rate of infection will prevent fans in the stands, and maybe even teams down on the turf.
The Ohio State University Athletic Department is not trying to make a political statement. This isn’t about Fauci or Trump, or even really about the COVID-19 virus. It’s about whether fans, and communities, are willing to put away their little conspiracies and vanities and politics, and wear masks to slow the spread of infection.
Slow the spread, and athletes can go to practice. Slow the spread, and fans might be able to be “socially distant” in the stands. And slow the spread, and maybe THE OSU makes $15 million in ticket sales instead of $31. That’s more than zero. Wear an OSU mask, do it for the team!!!!!
And for all of those folks who are demanding that public schools open, five days a week, teachers facing kids in class, guess what? You too can get a mask with your high school logo (oh yes, my old employer, Watkins Memorial has them). Wear a mask to slow the infection rate so your kid (or kid brother or sister) can go to “real” school. And, if you won’t wear a mask for that, wear it so you can watch “Football Friday Night!” Maybe it’ll be on TV. Or better yet, so I can go to a Cross Country meet on Saturday. Social distancing is a little bit easier to do in the woods.
