[CardinalSagehen]

This dovetails with a post in another thread asking about what Saban meant when he said it's "safer" for his players to be balling in the program than not. I believe i heard that Saban meant it's safer for them to be on campus in program than back home (almost certainly true) AND safer than infection rate in general student population (which could also be true, but remember, the team hasn't been interacting much with "regular" students), given the players arrived first.

Dabo said pretty much the same thing. Much safer in the program than at home or in the general student population. It's their Disneyworld Bubble. . . .

Dabo is full of it. Half the team has gotten Covid 19. If even one of those players has symptoms of autoimmune disease in the next few months it will come back to haunt him. 

As a medical doctor, you fundamentally care about people’s health, and it’s a good thing you can’t relate to Dabo or Saban.  

It seems to me that the job of being a big-time football coach is largely incompatible with caring about people’s health. I’m not saying coaches never care about players as people, but they can’t worry too much about their health, or else they’d need to choose another line of work. I respect coaches trying to make the game safer, like Coach Shaw.  And I respect the point of view that football is net-positive for most of these kids.  

Covid is certainly different and worse than CTE and the usual orthopedic risks of football, in that playing the game can affect the whole community, even those not playing. And I understand that we’re not quite clear on the long term risks of Covid (although we could say the same about CTE.) But I’m not convinced that Covid is any worse for the players themselves than the many chronic knee, back, cognitive and mental health problems that football causes. There’s no easy way to compare, but I’m guessing these traditional risks outweigh any risk from Covid to the players themselves.

Lastly, the fact that half of his own team has already been through and recovered from Covid probably makes Dabo feel better, not worse. He probably feels like it’s less likely to affect them now, so they might as well let the boys play for another “national” championship!

(I happen to disagree.)

[CardinalSagehen]

This dovetails with a post in another thread asking about what Saban meant when he said it's "safer" for his players to be balling in the program than not. I believe i heard that Saban meant it's safer for them to be on campus in program than back home (almost certainly true) AND safer than infection rate in general student population (which could also be true, but remember, the team hasn't been interacting much with "regular" students), given the players arrived first.

Dabo said pretty much the same thing. Much safer in the program than at home or in the general student population. It's their Disneyworld Bubble. . . .

Dabo is full of it. Half the team has gotten Covid 19. If even one of those players has symptoms of autoimmune disease in the next few months it will come back to haunt him. 

As a medical doctor, you fundamentally care about people’s health, and it’s a good thing you can’t relate to Dabo or Saban.  

It seems to me that the job of being a big-time football coach is largely incompatible with caring about people’s health. I’m not saying coaches never care about players as people, but they can’t worry too much about their health, or else they’d need to choose another line of work. I respect coaches trying to make the game safer, like Coach Shaw.  And I respect the point of view that football is net-positive for most of these kids.  

Covid is certainly different and worse than CTE and the usual orthopedic risks of football, in that playing the game can affect the whole community, even those not playing. And I understand that we’re not quite clear on the long term risks of Covid (although we could say the same about CTE.) But I’m not convinced that Covid is any worse for the players themselves than the many chronic knee, back, cognitive and mental health problems that football causes. There’s no easy way to compare, but I’m guessing these traditional risks outweigh any risk from Covid to the players themselves.

Lastly, the fact that half of his own team has already been through and recovered from Covid probably makes Dabo feel better, not worse. He probably feels like it’s less likely to affect them now, so they might as well let the boys play for another “national” championship!

(I happen to disagree.)