Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hurricanes break community trust
Let’s not mince words: The University of Miami should be ashamed about hiding how many football players have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Athletic Director Blake James should be better than dropping the curtain on his department during a pandemic.
It’s sketchy enough how colleges have brought their powerless players back to train when their schools still are deemed unsafe for one-day graduations, much less full-scale classes. But to not be transparent to the larger community over what risk is out there?
Miami is a private school and, thus, doesn’t have to divulge its positive test numbers. But the community trust isn’t being upheld here. The need for information in a pandemic should supersede any legalities for a school.
No names are necessary. Nothing to identify a player. Just a total number. It’s not even clear Miami football players are being told how many of them have tested positive — be it 11 athletes like the University of Florida announced
Tuesday, the 13 football players at Texas or the 23 football players at Clemson.
I asked a Miami spokesman if players were told how many of them have tested positive and got back this response:
“University of Miami Athletics is following the return to campus plan as established in conjunction with University officials and UHealth physicians and administrators. Any individual who tests positive or who requires quarantine will be notified immediately and given specific instructions.
“Individuals will be notified on an asneeded basis per the University’s contact tracing protocol. In accordance with privacy laws and in order to respect the privacy of its student-athletes and staff, the University will not share health information that is specific to its student-athletes and/or staff.”
That’s a long answer to suggest that, no, players haven’t been directly told how many of them tested positive. That’d be a starting point to understanding how safe it was to sweat on teammates, right?
Common sense and players’ safety already have been trampled by the NCAA schools in bringing back players for summer practices. The NCAA decided to start them back when many states were still under stay-at-home recommendations.
Everyone wants sports back, but the rule for college sports returning should be simple: When it’s safe for classes to start, it’s safe for teams, too. If biology or band aren’t meeting, the offense shouldn’t huddle up.
As the pro leagues negotiate their return, unions serve the players’ best interests, millions of the players’ involved dollars were in play and these are grown men capable of making grown-up decisions.
College players have no voice. College coaches and administrator no doubt want to keep their players healthy — at least within the bounds of getting them ready to play.
Many coaches think players being on campus is the best sheltering device for players. Good housing. Good meals. Good exercise. All true. But tell it to the 23 at Clemson who tested positive. Or the 10 at Alabama.
“We’re going to continue to bring more and more kids back to campus, and as you bring more and more kids back to campus, obviously there’s the opportunities for them to go out and be in the community,‘’
James said on Monday. “That’s why we have to just really emphasize the importance of social distancing, wearing masks, washing your hands or using hand sanitizer and just really taking all the steps we can as a program to put us in the best position to have as little of an impact as possible.”
Here’s a safety idea better than washing hands: Don’t let players return until students return. Delay the fall season until, oh, November or December. Play an eightgame season. If the virus is still bad then, cancel it altogether.
It’s about money, of course. And let’s not dismiss that. Football is the golden goose for college athletic departments. In a time where lots of companies are under financial fire, college sports are, too.
We all want sports to return. But if schools aren’t deemed safe for students, are they safe for players? Beyond that, Miami shouldn’t be hiding its positive tests totals.
This isn’t a scoreboard comparing Miami to Clemson and Florida. It’s a pandemic where the more information the community gets, the better people can react.