UT no longer requires athletes to sign COVID-19 form
Tennessee is no longer requiring athletes to sign the COVID-19 risk acknowledgement form that its athletes were asked to sign when returning to campus last month.
"Our intent was never for the form to serve as a waiver of liability," athletic department spokesman Tom Satkowiak said Monday in a statement to Knox News. "Following a recent review, we are no longer asking our studentathletes to sign it. We will, however, continue to educate our student-athletes regarding virus prevention behavior."
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey addressed the form during an interview with HBO'S "Real Sports."
Asked about UT requiring athletes to sign that form, labeled by UT as an "Acknowledgement of Risk and Shared Responsibility," Sankey told HBO that he'd confirmed with UT Chancellor Donde Plowman that the university had dropped that practice.
"Our programs have felt it important to make people aware of the shared responsibility we all have," Sankey said in the HBO interview conducted last week.
"And I think providing the right kind of information is important. But as we've learned about those types of documents, we've pulled back from that perceived or real liability piece and want to make sure the focus is on education and information."
Portions of Sankey's interview were shared by HBO with Knox News as a pre-screening. The interview will air during Tuesday's episode of "Real Sports" (10 p.m. ET, HBO).
Tennessee welcomed its football and basketball athletes back to campus in June. As those athletes returned to campus amid the coronavirus pandemic, they had to sign the one-paragraph form, provided by the University of Tennessee Medicine Department.
"While the University is taking precautions to reduce the risks that student-athletes may contract coronavirus or become ill with COVID-19, I understand that the University cannot guarantee that a student-athlete will not contract coronavirus or become ill," the form stated.
"I am willing to assume that risk. I also understand that I have a shared responsibility to help reduce the chance that my fellow student athletes, coaches, and staff do not contract coronavirus or become ill. My shared responsibility includes social distancing, frequently washing my hands, disinfecting athletic equipment after use, wearing a face (mask), and adhering to the recommendations of the UT Sports Medicine staff and team physicians."
For athletes under the age of 18 who were reporting to campus, the form required the signature of a parent or guardian.
That COVID-19 form fell in line with other risk acknowledgement forms that are standard, such as inherent risk and sport safety forms, a Tennessee spokesperson told Knox News in June.
Tennessee was not alone in requiring athletes to sign forms or pledges tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Missouri had athletes sign a pledge to follow certain guidelines to guard against the spread of COVID-19, The Columbia Missourian reported. Ohio State athletes were required to sign a two-page acknowledgement of risk waiver, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Tennessee began welcoming athletes in additional sports back to campus earlier this month. Athletes undergo testing for COVID-19 after returning to campus.
No football athletes tested positive during the initial round of testing in June. Two men's basketball players tested positive in June.
Another round of testing in July turned up positive tests across multiple sports, UT announced last week. Football athletes were among the positive tests this month, but it's unclear how many players tested positive. Although UT opted for transparency with its June test results, it declined to specify last week how many athletes tested positive or from which sports the positive tests stemmed.