Why TCU and the Big 12 are right to play football this fall, even with COVID-19 risk
For college football fans, this week has been like a tense, fourth-quarter shootout with the season hanging in the balance.
Back and forth the reports went: This conference won’t play the fall season, that one might, certain schools dissent.
For now, three of the five major conferences will play fall sports, including the Big 12, home of TCU, UT-Austin and several other Texas universities. They’ll do so with slimmed-down schedules, and like the rest of life these days, the spread of coronavirus could exercise a veto at any moment.
The divergence in one of the biggest American sports reflects the difficulty of restoring elements of normalcy to our society. As we wait for a vaccine, we’re constantly testing how to do the things we once did without second thought.
In this case, a bunch of university presidents weighed the desire to have football (and its massive revenues) and other fall sports against the potential medical harm and legal liability and said, it can’t be done. Others looked at the same facts and said, let’s go for it.
For now, we think the second group has it right. In as many ways as possible, we need to try to figure out how to live with the virus — safely, distanced and with all the right protocols. It’s good for Fort Worth if TCU has a season, even if truncated and without fans.
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Of course, football programs, like the rest of us, will have to be prepared to ratchet back or even cancel if the virus spreads.
The Big 12 decision should send a signal to leaders of schools throughout Texas, too: It’s worth trying to play. Much of the state has a very low risk of the virus and can probably play sports without outbreaks. High school volleyball returned this week in Class 4A and below, with masks, distancing and adherence to crowd limits.
In urban areas, it will be harder. But schools should plan for delayed starts to sports seasons, as they have with the academic year, and be prepared to pull back if necessary.
All this is a glimmer of hope that pro football, America’s biggest entertainment spectacle, can make it back, too. Hockey and basketball are having safe, successful playoffs in their “bubbles.” Baseball, trying to play a short regular season, has had a harder time, perhaps because of the travel involved.
The NFL, for better or worse, is a cultural unifier for the country, a metronome so many people live by in the fall. A successful season would be a major morale booster that we all need.
At all levels, returning to play involves asking a lot of athletes. They must be vigilant about new protocols. They must police each other, too; peer pressure is a powerful motivator.
We’re not naive about the risks involved. Part of the calculation for the college conferences that decided to postpone fall sports was the possibility of long-term health damage from catching the virus. Individual athletes must always have the right to opt out if they believe the danger is too great for themselves and their families.
And some will say that the risks are too great to play games; we don’t need sports, after all. True. We don’t need movies, art or cheesecake, either, but they all give life so much of its flavor.
For those who participate and those who watch, sports are a meaningful part of life. It’s a worthy effort to try to bring them back — cautiously, yes, and with clear-eyed understanding that it may not work.
Because if we’re going to live many more months or years with this dangerous virus in our midst, we have to learn how to actually live with it, not just survive.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 3:17 PM.