The issues around playing or not playing are a little deeper than not being whiney. Its a question about it being feesable or not. As in if the virus hits a club and 7 players get it, now what. And then you made a choice to go to North Dakota or not. The player can make a choice to play or not. Its him that will be out millions that can never be recouped. I kinda see where you drew this paralell but I thinknits a false equivalent. Are you saying you will have to endure isolation in ND so the player can shut himself off from his family in a bubble for our entertainment for 5-6 months?
The narrative is not because I might have to; players should.
Which is precisely why I gave examples of others who have to endure sacrifices during this (or many other times) of similar nature.
I literally just learned last night: my gfs best friend & her husband (who quickly grew to be great friends) — he took a job offer last year to move to NC from Orlando—and not a year into that decision he lost that job due to COVID; now he’s going to Utah 10 days at a time for another job he recently started. He has a little girl he doesn’t get to see save for the fast turnaround times he can come back. They kept it private because of family criticism & drama. It’s definitely a sacrifice nonetheless.
Again, this is just an example. While COVID is the basis of the it now; it’s not uncommon to do assignments for your job that require being away from home. It’s part of what comes with the territory & not uncommon.
I don’t want to shift the debate to cases vs. death rate: that’s a different topic & analysis altogether & not appropriate for football thread. But I would urge not to take agenda filled news outlets like MSESPN throwing a message across bottom of the screen of X number of people testing positive without the data set of outcomes of those positive cases.
To translate to football terms & statistics—If I tell you Jameis Winston led the NFL in passing yards with 33 TDs; most people would say that was great year. Without other data—just sheer amount of turnovers for instance, it doesn’t tell accurate account of true performance.
Again, that’s a different debate. But players being routinely tested & consistently having Drs care as part of risk management plan; probably no reason they cannot have family visits. So, IMO, it only strengthens my position about dealing with it and doing their job under different conditions for a season.
Just one more thing. I already pointed out the benefits to people going to work because the season happens—we can easily extend that to many businesses who depend on entities like NFL to stay in business & keep incomes. But it has another benefit that no one ever wants to broach. This is a depressing time no doubt. To parallel—especially in Pittsburgh during the 70s it was extremely bad economically & very depressing. People had to leave the area to find work. It happened to my family leading me to grow up in Browns territory. But those Steelers teams gave people hope. At least for a time—they could forget about troubles and make it through. That constant narrative of Steelers fans travel is nothing compared to how we’re already there. Love of the team has passed from father to son & mother to daughter because Pittsburgh is a city that holds true to old values of hard work—a reason that even before the drama came public—there was never the love for Antonio Brown or Lev Bell like there was for Ward/Bettis. I think deep down we all knew they were not genuine.
But expand this to whole league. It’s a reality that sports gives people a chance to bond and to talk. It can make you feel good - which can give people a real reason to keep trying in their own lives. I know I’ve done many high fives and celebrations with complete strangers over games. Now, as much as if not more than ever—we need that.
Players use their platforms for their own branding due to having celebrity status with fans. That door swings both ways. To have that platform—it’s just as important they recognize the responsibility of what it means to society—not just as entertainment or distraction; but the real impact on people as it’s proven economic problems leads to deaths... drug addiction, depression, suicides & more. And no one wants to talk about that because it doesn’t fit the narrative of MSM.
“Getting a platform” isn’t in their job description either. How it’s used — career after retirement to actively using; it’s of my opinion that you don’t get to use it when it’s convenient.
You can disagree—but I won’t change my view and it’s certainly not just because of my own situation and willingness to do it—that these guys should do their job & not use excuse of being away from families for 6 months as reason to not.
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