IMPENETRABLE DEFENSE
Governor says he won’t be swayed by calls to allow football, other sports this fall
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s words and tone on playing high school sports during the COVID-19 pandemic haven’t changed a bit since he shut things down in late July.
Protests and rallies have been held all over the state in the last week, with parents and students calling for football and other fall sports to restart. Area football coaches have organized rallies in Springfield and Chicago on Saturday.
But those movements don’t seem to be having any impact on Pritzker.
“I’m not willing to sacrifice people’s lives or their health — neither the children, nor their parents who would be affected also,” he said at a news conference Tuesday. “We are being careful about it, but I’m relying on doctors and researchers to give us the information. This isn’t a political decision. I know that there are people who would like me simply to make a political decision to allow people to endanger themselves.”
Every state that borders Illinois is now playing high school football. The current plan is for Illinois to play in the spring.
“We have the lowest positivity rate in the Midwest,” Pritzker said. “Still too high. The states you are talking about all have very high positivity rates — double-digit positivity rates in most. Those are states, fine, if they decided to endanger children and families in those states by allowing certain contact sports to take place, that is their decision. It’s not something that is good for the families and the children of Illinois.”
The Illinois High School Association announced Friday it had sent a letter to Pritzker asking for permission for the IHSA “to resume control over determining the resumption of IHSA sports and activities.” However, the IHSA did not say whether it supported a resumption of high school sports. In the same announcement, the IHSA said “there have been no discussions, let alone proposed timelines, for resuming any sports at this time.”
The IHSA and the governor are allowing teams across the state to practice this month under specific COVID-19 guidelines. But Chicago Public Schools isn’t even allowing that. “With the support of the Office of Student Health and Wellness, we made this decision with the health, safety and welfare of our student-athletes and coaches in mind,” CPS sports director David Rosengard wrote in an email to principals and athletic directors.
That seemingly makes it unlikely that CPS would allow fall sports even if the governor changed his mind.