Oklahoma University has banned all in-person events on campus through July 31. The head coach of the Oklahoma State University program nevertheless believes that preparations for a college football season that may not happen at all should commence on May 1.
“We have to have a plan, and the plan right now is for them to start on May 1,” Mike Gundy said Tuesday, via the Norman (OK) Transcript. “It might get backed up two weeks, I don’t know, I can’t make that call, but if it does, we’ll start with the employees of this company, the ones that come in this building, then we’ll bring the players in, and slowly but surely we’ll test them all in.”
In making the case for a return to normal, Gundy acknowledged that older people who work for the “company” may want to remain away.
“Maybe they don’t come back, but the majority of people in this building, who are healthy . . . and certainly the 18-, 19-, 20-, 21- 22-year-olds that are healthy, the so-called medical people saying the herd of healthy people that have the antibodies may be built up and can fight this,” Gundy said. “We all need to go back to work.”
Gundy’s premise seems to be that his players are basically superhuman, immune from the virus and/or unable to be made sick or killed by it.
“In my opinion, if we have to bring our players back, test them, they’re in good shape, they’re all 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 years old and they are healthy,” Gundy said. “A lot of them can fight it off with their natural body, the antibodies and the build that they have. There’s some people that are asymptomatic. If that’s true, then we sequester them, and people say that’s crazy. No, it’s not crazy, because we need to continue to budget and run money through the state of Oklahoma.”
Over the weekend, it was explained that college football will have a hard time balancing the college with the football, and that any effort to get football back on track will further expose the ruse of the student-athlete, that he’s far more athlete than student.
In one statement, Gundy burns down the facade: "[W]e need to continue to budget and run money through the state of Oklahoma.”
Of course they do. Because ultimately they need to keep paying Gundy’s salary, one that is fattened up by the fact that the young men he regards as virus-proof don’t get paid for their on-field abilities, risks, and sacrifices. Why not throw onto them the risk of serious illness or death from a disease that’s currently ravaging communities throughout the country despite efforts to slow its spread?
Gundy is a colorful character in college football, from his “I’m a man, I’m forty rant” to a glorious mullet that becomes less age-appropriate by the minute. But he’s also a dangerous voice in the midst of a pandemic, urging practices that will result in more people getting sick and more people dying as his healthy football soldiers spread the virus among them and then inevitably give it to someone who gives it to someone who gives it to someone THAT IT KILLS.
And if Gundy refuses to understand that basic truth, he’s unfit for the job that he holds.