Athletic directors talk kneeling, communication
An act that a few years ago was met with animosity is being looked at in a different light this year, and that could filter down to the high school level.
When Colin Kaepernick knelt during the Star Spangled Banner in 2016, then unapologetically continued to do so, it spelled the end of his professional football career, as well as public vilification.
On Friday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league was wrong to react so harshly.
With Black Lives Matter protests gaining momentum, there are a lot of indications that public opinion may have changed on the silent, peaceful protest.
After Kaepernick’s protest, scattered kneeling protests popped up in college and high school games.
“When it originally came up, it was nothing we ever really discussed from the top down or anything,” said Tokay High athletic director Michael Holst. “Nobody came down and said this is how it’s going to be. We didn’t have anybody do it, or anybody that came to us wanting to do it. We never crossed that bridge.”
Both Holst and Lodi High athletic director Robert Winterhalter said this week they would support students who came to them about kneeling.
“I knew even last year there were a couple of players who knelt during the national anthem. Their teammates, coaches, gathered around them as a sign of support,” Winterhalter
said. “We obviously in the state of California, and in Lodi Unified, always have the national anthem before a game. Tradition has players standing. If that’s not appropriate, and they’ve indicated their intention to the staff and to me, then that’s something where we will support our players and our teammates.”
Holst added that he’d support his players getting more involved than just a show of kneeling during the anthem.
“Even more so in high school, I think it deserves a conversation, because while it’s not the same thing, but we talk to our kids about wearing pink during breast cancer awareness, and there’s got to be some action behind what you’re doing,” Holst said. “Just wearing pink doesn’t help anybody. If you
Privately, teams are trying to find the right formula for their limited traveling parties — sources believe the number to be around 35, including players — working through scenarios that would bring the right mix of coaches, support staff, executives and medical teams to Orlando. The NBA still is discussing how much of a team’s travel party will be mandatory, according to people familiar with the talks.
Shared services are going to be a reality — an equipment manager could work with more than one team — but there’s uneasiness around the NBA when it comes to sharing medical services.
“If one of my guys gets hurt, there’s no ... way I want another team looking at him,” one NBA executive said, using an expletive.
Centralizing some medical services will be necessary, according to one expert.
T.O. Souryal, the Dallas Mavericks’ team physician for 22 years who now serves as medical director of a Texas sports medicine clinic, believes the Disney World bubble could call for a “hybrid system.” Team orthopedists and primary care physicians would continue working, either on site or remotely, with their rosters as usual — all the better to closely guard sensitive information about players’ health. The NBA, meanwhile, would provide a pool of dentists, ophthalmologists and other consultants to work with the entire field.
In addition, Souryal expects the league to form a team of on-site physicians, nurses and laboratory testing personnel to target the novel coronavirus.
“I know they’re working on it and I suspect this will be an Orlando-based team because none of the 30 teams have infectious disease physicians on staff,” he said.
Despite facing a health challenge unlike any in NBA history, expecting team physicians and orthopedists to remain for the entirety of their team’s stay on the Disney campus is considered unrealistic. Team physicians are independent contractors who work primarily at practices in the team’s market. Even if doctors arrived for the start of the playoffs, Souryal questioned how long they could afford to stay.
“I certainly understand the challenges of being away from your practice simply because most of these practices have taken a huge economic hit with coronavirus,” Souryal said. “You couple that with the fact that you may be away from your office for a month or six weeks, the financial hit is huge. The question then comes up, well, how are we going to get paid if we have to leave our practice for six weeks? There are a lot of unanswered questions.”
One executive suggested that consultations via telehealth software could be a work-around. The NBA also must decide protocols for how to handle more significant injuries that would require a player to see a specialist off campus. If they return to Disney able to play, how long would they be required to quarantine before rejoining their team? Such delays could alter playoff series.