College football programs around the country are now facing the dilemma of trying to determine what their next move will be. Everyone’s asking the question “Will we be able to play this season and if so, will there be a uniform start to training camp and will everybody get to play?
Well…according to NCAA president Mark Emmert on Tuesday, they are leaving decisions on start dates to state officials and university presidents. That means that some schools will elect to play and others, depending upon their circumstances locally in regards to this pandemic, won’t.
The unfortunate piece here is that most people in our country and not just football programs have been thrown into the trick bag of survival because of the poor leadership coming from the highest level of office, the presidency.
American citizens are having to make decisions as to whether they can sit this thing out and shelter in place or making the decision to go back to work because they simply can’t afford NOT to work.
What most people don’t realize it that college football programs economically fuel most university budgets. The football program pays for all of the other sports with the exception of basketball, and more often than not, pays for a lot of the research and new construction that goes on on campus. Without football many of these universities will literally fall apart.
However, saving lives trumps everything but we as a country have been pushed into a corner to have to make these decisions because most people thought that it wasn’t important enough to vote.
The United States has the largest number of Coronavirus cases in the world with 1.4 million and just over 83,000 deaths because the leadership in place decided that it wasn’t important enough to prepare for a pandemic even though the previous administration had the parameters in place to do so.
That very office was closed by the current administration and they fired people because, according to this administration, it wasn’t important at the time. Now folks are having to make life and death decisions about whether they should provide for their families or continue to shelter in place.
In just 60 days the U.S. has more than 83,000 deaths and the model is predicting 147,000 by August. Let that sink in and then try to tell me that voting responsibly isn’t important.
Getting back to college football you may say, well…it’s just sports. Well…sports feeds a lot of folks in and around campus and in and around this country. There are 10’s of thousands of people that have jobs associated with sports at the college and pro level. There are all types of ancillary jobs that support the production of a simple game. There are arena staff and concessions, parking and the list goes on.
We haven’t even mentioned all of the folks that make a living in hospitality in and around the venues where these events take place. That money is connected to the bigger economy. It’s because of a severe lack of leadership that this situation has gotten out of control.
Would there be a pandemic had there been anyone else in office? Sure there would have been. However, the magnitude of it’s impact on American lives could have been different with a more responsible and caring leader. Voting counts whether you want to believe it does or not.
Everyone is connected to one another. If folks in one industry aren’t working it affects all others because their buying power is diminished. If the person at the restaurant isn’t working they can’t buy groceries or pay their bills. If they can’t afford to pay their bills they can’t do things like get their hair done. If they can’t afford to get their hair done the beautician or barber can’t pay their rent or mortgage or other bills. If they can’t pay their rent or mortgage the landlord or bank suffers and so on and so forth. The economy falls apart.
This isn’t about just sports. It’s about voting and voting responsibly. There is a reason why we have leadership. It’s not just a title. It’s a responsibility to the American people that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Stop me when I start lyin’!
