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Message: [QUOTE="sutomcat, post: 3660014, member: 27"] A few things here. 1) You have no idea if Johnson’s myocarditis was caused by COVID. No one does now. This article does a good job providing an objective review of what is currently known. [URL unfurl="true"]http://oklahoman.com/article/5679178/opinion-college-basketball-community-seeks-answers-on-keyontae-johnsons-heart-condition[/URL] 2) It does matter that they can opt out (and not have to drop out of school, not lose their scholarships and not have to lose a year of eligibility). Those are the possible penalties for opting out and they have all been removed. There is no reason for an athlete with concerns over playing during the pandemic to have to play. This make the decision to play the athlete’s decision. The athlete’s decision alone. As it should be. 3) People have been trying for decades to get players under scholarship to be considered employees and keep failing. You might think they are employees but the courts do not agree with you. The one thing I agree with in your post is that some lawyers will be happy to argue otherwise. The cold harsh truth is that opting out and sitting out the season at home is not an attractive option for a lot of these players. They don’t have a safe environment to go home to. Things like ready access to PPE, proper social distancing, regular testing; things they get as a matter of course as scholarship athletes, are not going to be as available at their homes. Even things like a warm place to stay and 3 good meals are not given for a lot of these kids at their homes. The only reason a lot of them are in college is to play their sport. They go to classes to stay eligible. They study to stay eligible. The big carrot that keeps them passing courses and making progress for their degrees is playing their sport. Taking that away, no matter how good the intentions, is going to be counter productive. Even if they stay in school and just attend classes (and not play their sports). Which assume classes are even being held on campus...certainly not a given. Anyway, there are a lot of good reasons to try and continue to play these sports. I do not believe any of the kids playing them are subjecting themselves to greater risks than they would if they were just normal students. Or just normal kids just out of the high school. There is a pandemic going on. There are risks everywhere. Some people are going to get infected and a few are going to get really sick. Maybe one or two might even die. Would they be safer if they did not play sports and either stayed in school and were treated like all other students? Would they be safer if they went home and took their chances there? No. No way. Attempting to play the regular seasons for these sports is the best way to keep these kids in a controlled and relatively safe environment. It has the added benefit of providing a much needed diversion for much of the country. I don’t see how anyone can think otherwise. But even if some of these kids would be safer being normal students or going home and sitting out the year, they have that option. They have been empowered to make this very big decision themselves. As far as I know, we got through football season with no fatalities. The same applies to all fall sports that were played (I know of no athlete that died while playing a sport at college this fall). Could have missed something here but I think things have gone as well as could be expected to date. Let’s hope the kids get through basketball season (and the other winter and spring sports) with a minimum of problems and let’s hope things go well enough so the kids that want to play have a chance to complete their seasons and play the sports they have chosen to play. [/QUOTE]

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