Defensive stop

DPH holding firm; CIAC must plan spring high school football

It’s late. It’s very late. It’s too late. The state Department of Public Health hasn’t seen any evidence that would convince it to lower high school football from a high risk to a medium risk sport.

Amongst conflicting announcements from the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, protests that have caught the eye of Fox News and made for a national story, bipartisan letters from state legislators to the governor and weeks upon weeks of passionate debate, it is that lack of evidence that will cancel football this fall in Connecticut.

There can be no other conclusion.

Unless someone is hiding the existence of some magical elixir or unless people in high places are not telling the truth, there is no other conclusion.

While there is no proof the COVID-19 numbers will be any better in March, the only option now is late winter-early spring football.

“If you follow this saga through the perspective of political policymaking, political propaganda, position statements, the whole back and forth with social media and media you could have a college course class on this,” SCC commissioner Al Carbone said.

Isn’t that the truth? So, let’s end the double-talk. Let’s end any confusion. Let’s stop punting the weight of public responsibility from one group of officials to another. Stand up. Man up. Woman up. No further delays. Only leadership. Only straight talk.

Make the announcement Monday or Tuesday: No fall football.

The governor, the DPH and the state superintendents should direct the CIAC to put together a series of schedules for three

sports seasons between January and the end of June to allow football to be played in March and April. Also, to be flexible and creative enough to address high-risk winter season sports like basketball and wrestling if they, too, are shut down, because the scheduling stands to be difficult and open a new can of hard feelings as it bumps into spring sports that already lost their season last school year.

While Gov. Ned Lamont and his office have pointed to the CIAC, the governing body for high school sports in Connecticut, as making the decision how and when to play a football season, the only truth that matters is the individual school districts determine if their high school teams will play and the superintendents are listening to the recommendations of the DPH. The DPH has been unbending.

After representatives from the state, the DPH, and the CIAC met for three hours Friday, I asked Paul Mounds, the governor’s chief of staff and a former Trinity College football player, if he had seen one bit of evidence that the DPH will budge.

“Glenn (Lungarini) and the team at CIAC are doing their job — to exhaust every option possible to have high school sports to play in their intended season — and I commend them for that,” Mounds answered. “With that said, the DPH acknowledges they put forth mitigation efforts for 11-on-11 tackle football, but absent evidence those efforts are proven, it will be difficult for the DPH to consider tackle football anything but a high-risk sport.”

This is what I read from that statement and the statements of others including the governor: The DPH was not convinced by what the CIAC presented. And without data to prove it, football is not feasible.

As far back as Aug. 10, the CIAC football committee recommended spring football. Hearing from various sources, many superintendents were terrified of going against the DPH and leaving themselves open to lawsuits from a COVID outbreak, it made all the sense in the world to me. Yet as days became weeks and the fall season was on and on, on and off again, my view evolved.

As the indecision dragged on and state COVID numbers remained so low, why not take it to its most logical and rational conclusion? Take it to the latest possible date, say Sept. 21-25. Get the most recent state COVID numbers after kids returned to school for a few weeks, gather as much data as possible from states playing football and make the latest, most scientific call possible. Combine it with some of the newer CIAC proposals and determine if a six-week season between Oct. 1 and Nov. 21 can be done safely and if it might be even safer than, say, mid-March to mid-April.

Yet here’s the rub. No matter how many players with signs to let them play march around the state Capitol, no matter how many letters are written, no matter how many logical arguments are forwarded, if the DPH is going to consider certain evidence to make a decision on whether it deems football a high-risk sport — THAT is the only decision that matters. My argument about holding on to the last possible date clearly holds no water with the DPH. And for those who have pushed and shouted so hard for football in the fall? Unless there’s magic or there have been lies, it’s over.

Face shields for players. Masks for the coaches. Extending the sideline boxes so players can better social distance. Altering, if not eliminating, huddles. Everyone but quarterbacks wearing gloves. Designated stations for equipment and hand sanitizers. Even eliminating kickoffs and punts. The CIAC came forth with a number of possibilities.

When interim DPH commissioner Deidre Gifford emerged from the meeting Friday saying both sides agree football is high risk and there was limited data on the effectiveness of the proposals, what, you thought Darien, Hand and St. Joe’s are playing in a few weeks?

Gifford and Lamont want the spring. For some bizarre reason, Lungarini, the CIAC’s executive director, has publicly stuck with the organization’s stance that it has only considered football — 11 on 11 or 7 on 7 — for the fall. Why? Is he trying to make it look like the CIAC was doing all it could? Trying to bluff the DPH into thinking the CIAC wouldn’t bend? Didn’t want to upset the other spring sports prematurely? Secretly absorbing the spring schedule plans forwarded by Carbone/ Ledyard AD Jim Buonocore and Hand coach Steve Filippone? Or already concocting an elaborate blueprint? Don’t know. I do know the CIAC needs to recognize a spring plan this week. And whether it copies Massachusetts or whoever, has got to work on the myriad of details, because cutting into baseball, track and lacrosse is a delicate task.

The other matter equally insane is that youth football games already are being played in some Connecticut towns where local organizations and parents have chosen to ignore the DPH recommendations. A 12year-old is playing, but his 16-year old brother isn’t. It’s nuts. Youth lacrosse, basketball and ice hockey tournaments have been held over the summer and these are high-risk sports the CIAC may call off. The same hockey players, for instance, may play for club teams this winter instead of their high school. Explain to me how that makes sense?

The other night I was part of a four-player, fourcoach discussion on the Ruden Report at Westport Library. While it hurt to listen to the kids talk about how badly they wanted to play in the fall, the emotional toll from the uncertainty and how they are learning life isn’t fair and to take nothing for granted, I was even more impressed by their maturity.

During that discussion, Fairfield Ludlowe coach Mitch Ross, a practicing dermatologist and graduate of Tufts School of Medicine, argued that it hasn’t been shown that football is any more of a risk than soccer. He said he would probably bet soccer is more dangerous because football, even with constant line collisions, has padding, helmets and splash shields. In a GameTimeCT podcast with Sean Patrick Bowley, Brenan Jackson, assistant director of the Utah High

School Activities Association, sounded even bolder. Despite Utah’s higher COVID-19 numbers, the state is already five weeks into football season. One game was canceled each of the first three weeks and none in the past two.

“Our culture, the history of our state has shown resiliency since its inception to present,” Jackson said. “We want to find reasons to make things work instead of looking for excuses not to … Instead of saying we’re going to let fear determine what we do or not to, let’s move forward with what we think we can do safely.”

Wrestling is seen as the highest risk sport. Jackson said Utah has no intention of canceling wrestling. That’s a different view of the world. Some would agree with that view. Some, pointing to CT’s outstanding numbers — and let’s keep it that way — would disagree. All would use their version of science to prove they are right.

The debate is real. Yet the only thing that matters with Connecticut high school football this fall is that the school districts make the final call and the superintendents will listen to the DPH recommendation.

See you on the football field in March.