To the dismay of millions of fans, the Big Ten was one of several college football conferences to pull the plug on playing this fall due to their concerns about exposure to COVID-19.
But undeterred by the inherent risks of playing a full-contact sport in the midst of a global pandemicβthat has already stolen over 860,000 lives worldwide and impacted millions moreβDonald Trump has been on a personal crusade to ensure that college football continues in the fall, the health and safety of thousands of student-athletes be damned.
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To that end, the Omaha World-Herald reports that Trump got Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren on the phone and pleaded his case, which likely included threatening an executive order and bloviating about how his hands might be fun-sized, but he can hold glasses of water just fine.
Our idiot-in-chief then proceeded to run to Twitter and do what he does best: lie.
βHad a very productive conversation with Kevin Warren, Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, about immediately starting up Big Ten football,β he tweeted. βWould be good (great!) for everyone - Players, Fans, Country. On the one-yard line!β
βOn the one-yard lineβ infers that a major announcement is imminent. More specifically, the Big Tenβs decision to postpone its season until the spring was about to be reversed. Thatβs kind of a big goddamn deal that would require updated safety measures to be submitted and approved by the same conference presidents and chancellors who just said, βHELLLLLLLL NAHβ to having a season on August 11βnot even a month ago.
So yes, Trump is lyingβagainβand on Wednesday, an anonymous source did everything short of calling this lying-ass liar a lying-ass liar.
From ESPN:
βNothing has changed,β a Big Ten source told ESPN. βNothing. We have to get all the medical questions answered before we can even bring back a plan to the presidents for approval.β
To add insult to injury, Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Moos squashed a rumor that the Big Ten was looking to restart in October if the newly unveiled, 15-minute saliva-based COVID-19 tests could facilitate a safer football environment.
βNothing to that rumor,β Moos told the World-Herald.
So yes, the ACC, Big 12 and SEC have every intention of playing this fall, but Trump is going to have to accept that he wonβt be seeing perennial powerhouses like Ohio State, Michigan or Penn State on the field until at least spring, at the earliest.
Iβm also gonna need him to dead the notion that due to their βextraordinary shapeβ that theyβre βnot going to have a problemβ with the coronavirus.
The Big Ten is making the right call. Hopefully, other conferences opting to continue play will come to their senses before these student-athletes suffer the consequences of corporate greed.
Straight From
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