Sports in the twisted age of Trumpism have been been tarred with the Dear Leader's racist and narcissistic brush. That was evident early in his regime when he used peaceful demonstrations against unequal treatment of African Americans under the law, where athletes took a knee to protest, conflating that with lack of "patriotism". Many owners of professional teams -- themselves right-wing Republicans -- sided with bigot Donald "Very Fine People On Both Sides" Trump, throwing players like Colin Kaepernick out and demanding the rest obey Trump's orders.
Now, with the college football season all but over until possibly next spring, the Trump-caused divide is evident in which college conferences are listening to scientists and doctors and which are listening to the Dear Leader, as Diane Roberts writes:
"The Big Ten and the Pac-12 will not play ball this fall. The Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Mountain West and Ivy League conferences won’t, either. But the states of the Old Confederacy have responded to the obvious dangers of playing a contact sport in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic with a collective, 'Surrender, hell!' [snip]
Yet, the Big 12, the ACC and the Southeastern Conference, made up of mostly Southern universities (with a sprinkling of schools from the Midwest and Northeast) insist they’re ready to hit the gridiron. This is a political decision, and, to some extent, a cultural one. Trump is egging them on, tweeting 'Play College Football!' Members of Congress have weighed in, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who has his own troubled history with college athletics, and declared, 'America needs college football.'” (our emphasis)Now, Trump would be hard pressed to name any college player or to talk about any given team intelligently. So this is really all about his self-preservation, his need to show the public that things are back to "normal" in the middle of a pandemic that he allowed to spread due to his incompetence and self-absorbtion with his re-election.
Despite warnings from medical experts involved in college sports, and cases of COVID-19 popping up regularly among the ranks of college athletes, some athletic departments will gladly put the money earned from college sports over the safety of the young men and women that earn them that money. And they have a corrupt, sociopathic ally in Trump.
(photo: "Is this how you hold a football? Like someone else's Bible?")
