This morning while browsing the internet, I stumbled upon a very interesting article. Jeff Kolpack, a North Dakota State beat writer, was pointing out some things about COVID testing in sports. His idea behind the article is that at some point we need to dial back COVID testing on athletes. We can’t have families and friends of players traveling across the country to find out a game had been cancelled. It was pointed out that a Bison player’s father drove eight hours to only find out the game was off. He also noted that Northern Iowa head coach Mark Farley doesn’t really get to have a good week of practice. Farley really only makes his final decisions for the weekend game on Fridays, when the COVID test results come back.
This big question he asks, is when will the testing end?
“That’s a great question,” Farley said, “because who’s going to make that decision? When will testing stop? I do believe this, with all the vaccines still out there, I can tell in our vicinity there is a light at the end of this tunnel. When that is, I’m hoping this summer, but there is a light. All this testing does right now is disqualify a lot of people with false positives or positives. I do believe and I sense light at the end of the tunnel. Then I watched NDSU get canceled two weeks in a row and us last week and I still feel like we’re in the middle of it.” (Inforum)
The Time to Stop Will Come, But Not Right Now
While I do agree with a lot of what Jeff is saying, I don’t think we need to stop testing right now, and neither does Mark. I briefly spoke with Mark about his article, and we agreed on many of the same points. In three or four years, hopefully, testing and vaccinations in the sporting world shouldn’t be needed. By that time, we will have hopefully made it to the point that COVID is no longer a wide-spread problem. However, the real question is, what are the steps we, as a society and as sports fans, need to take to get to that point.
Once I got in touch with Jeff, I was pretty straight-forward with him. I asked him what the next steps should be as far as college athletics.
“I think schools need to require vaccinations, if not the NCAA. Rutgers already started down that road.” (Jeff Kolpack)
For people that don’t know, Rutgers has made it mandatory that students receive the vaccination.
Let Them Play Lawsuit
Cornell, Brown and Northeastern have joined Rutgers as universities who require COVID vaccination for students who want to study in-person or on campus. However, this plan has had more than it’s fair share of criticism. Hell, there has already been a lawsuit filed against the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Under state guidelines in Michigan, on April 9th, students aging from 13-19 will be required to test for COVID-19 at least once a week in order to compete or practice in a contact sport.
Let Them Play, a high school sports support group, issued a lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, questioning if the testing requirements are legal. They also want clarity on whether the MDHHS has the authority to mandate the tests. If colleges start making vaccination mandatory, we will see many more lawsuits just like this one. However, there are those who support Rutgers’ initiative. I spoke with NBA writer Bill Ingram about Rutgers policy, and he was all in.
“I believe that Rutgers University opting to require students to get the COVID-19 vaccine makes perfect sense. They, too. have a clear financial motive, but in this case they’re taking the approach that also protects the health and even lives of the students and staff of the university. School aged children are required to get a battery of vaccines against various diseases, without which they can’t attend public schools. It makes perfect sense, given the severity of COVID-19, to make vaccines mandatory.”
The Next Steps With COVID Testing in Sports
When I read the last sentence of Bill’s quote, I did remember that I had to get many shots and vaccines before I was able to attend Kindergarten. My father was also of the same opinion as Bill. He believes right now it is the best option to make testing mandatory. As for me, I really don’t know. Forcing American citizens to get a vaccine that has caused some side effects just seems unlawful to me. However, I do know that if we want sports to get back to normal, mandatory vaccination might be the safest and best option.
I don’t know when we will return to normalcy, or if we ever will. However, I do know that I would love to stop seeing games be cancelled every weekend.
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