Fall sports are an unnecessary risk

Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that none of us lives in a vacuum. Every decision we make, every interaction, every point of contact we have with the world has a ripple effect. Some of those ripples are so small, they eventually dissipate into nothing. Some of those ripples gather momentum and become a tidal wave with potentially destructive force.

It’s with that mind that we state our position: Fall sports are an unnecessary risk and should be canceled at all levels.

This is not a popular opinion, we know. West Virginia University sports — especially football — bring in vital revenue, both to the university and to the city. Football Saturdays are a boon to restaurants and hotels and every small business that can offer parking for a small fee. Alumni from outside the state make a weekend trip of it, and end up supporting a variety of local businesses. Fans from anywhere outside city limits flood into Morgantown, and even if they only stop for gas, they’ve still invested something into our city and state.

High school sports can be the stepping stones for athletes to get into college. Extracurriculars look amazing on college applications and being part of a team teaches life and social skills. For high school juniors and seniors, the fall season is when university teams scout them out and start offering scholarships. And sometimes that scholarship is the difference between affording college and not.

And of course the players will miss it. Sports are an opportunity for social engagement and exercise; a chance to be with friends and do something they love. We don’t deny any of this.

But student athletes don’t live in a bubble. Neither do the coaching staff and everyone else who makes practices and game days go smoothly. We have gotten to the point where we won’t allow people to visit their loved ones in hospitals or nursing homes for fear of community spread, but somehow, as a state, we’re still OK with letting young adults sweat and breathe on each other and make physical contact for extended periods of time and then send them home to their families or roommates?

Bars are closed because young people can’t be trusted to interact responsibly, but we gather up 20-plus young adults for sports practice? The state is under “safer at home” orders, which discourage any unnecessary forays into public, but we’re going to have football games and then let the players, staff and, potentially, fans back out into the community? Student athletes will be tested three times a week for COVID-19, but the average person has to fight to get a test?

Allowing sports this fall is the antithesis of every precaution our communities have taken so far. Unless student athletes go from the field to their rooms (no roommates or family homes) and never interact with another person, we can’t guarantee they won’t spread the coronavirus. Unless every person who attends a practice or a game doesn’t come into contact with anyone else for at least two weeks, we can’t guarantee that person won’t spread COVID-19.

None of us lives in a vacuum. And after everything we’ve already sacrificed — everyone we’ve already lost — allowing fall sports to continue is a gratuitous and unnecessary risk.