OK, Boomer! Esiason & Gio have virus conspiracy theory
Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti have their eyes on those tricky college football coaches, who they strongly suggested were holding coronavirus parties to get their players infected well before the season.
Esiason hemmed and hawed for a bit before he and Gio outright said it on Monday morning.
“I gotta be really careful here, because I don’t want to say that this is an accusation,” Esiason said. “I just was thinking the other day about what is going on with the SEC teams down south. And Clemson included, who’s obviously an ACC team.
“A lot of their players are coming down with COVID-19, oddly enough. So are they trying to herd immunity their teams, so these guys can get sick now as opposed to getting sick during the college football season if, in fact, there is one?”
“Sure, that’s one of the first things I said about [Bill] Belichick,”
Giannotti responded. “I said, watch Belichick get his whole team sick so everybody’s been through it already. I was saying that facetiously, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
As of last week, 37 Clemson football players (out of 120 on the roster) had tested positive for the virus. Clemson says half of those players are asymptomatic and none have been hospitalized yet.
Esiason quickly discarded the caution he started the segment with.
“I think it’s going on,” he said. “The numbers coming out of like Alabama, LSU and Clemson, all these teams? It’s too much of a coincidence.”
Giannotti then did an impression of LSU coach Ed Orgeron telling his players to cough on each other — it’s nowhere as good as, say, his Francesa — and said that “Ed Orgeron directing people to get sick is something that I don’t think is that crazy.”
“I don’t think it’s that crazy either,” Esaison said. “Now you have 16 NBA players that have tested positive. They’re all gonna get through it. They’re all gonna come through it fine.”
This isn’t a totally novel take; former NFL player and analyst Ross Tucker already suggested that Clemson has a “competitive advantage” from getting sick early.
Boomer and Gio plowed straight through the questions of whether coaches would or should infect their players. The “would” seems ridiculous, and it’s worth pointing out why the “should” is too. NBA player Rudy Gobert said last week that he has lingering COVID symptoms three months after contracting it. The disease can cause long-term heart and lung damage, even in young people. But here’s the most obvious reason why their conspiracy theory is wrong: The virus is incredibly contagious and it spreads quickly when large groups of people gather in close contact. No corona parties needed when you have football practice.