Want to Know if There Will Be MLB Season or College Football? Don't Ask a Coach, Ask a Doc

Football coaches want to coach, athletic directors want to direct and have money to pay for the budget. Conference commissioners want to have a conference to oversee. We know their motivation even if they are conservative. None will sound the okay sign for sports. That will be up to doctors and politicians.

STILLWATER -- Mike Gundy took a beating nationally and then locally from some corners and Gundy really shouldn't be blamed, Neither should Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder for saying he wanted football and a football season on time. 

Today on my radio show, a caller phoned in and asked if I thought the football season would happen and would it happen on time?

I answered that I didn't know. He asked, 'Robert, when would you bring the players back on campus?'

I told him that if it were up to me I would have them back in early June. I would test them and all coaches and support staff and have them ready to prepare and work out. Then I said, it's not up to me. I've spent most of my adult life covering college athletics. I enjoy it. I think I'm pretty good at it. I want to get back to doing it. That is what clouds my judgement. I want it, so I'm cheerleading for it. Yesterday, talking to John Walters, the voice at Iowa State and he said he prays for it and suggested I should too. I took him up on it, but I'm not sure God has time right now to answer a football prayer. 

Many of us want football and the other sports. ESPN gets points for trying, but driveway H-O-R-S-E ain't getting it done. Peter Hamby of the Snapchat show Good Luck America had Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, and member of President Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force on his show and asked specifically about the MLB season and college football.

"There's a way of doing that," Dr. Fauci answered. "Nobody comes to the stadium. Put them in big hotels where ever you want to play. Keep them very well surveilled, have them tested every week, and make sure they don't end up infecting each other or their family. Let them play the season out. People say you can't play without spectators. Well, I think you'll get enough buy in from people that are dying to see a baseball game, particularly me. I live in Washington and we have the World Champion Washington Nationals. (Chuckle) I want to see them play again." 

Tomorrow Oklahoma State basketball head coach Mike Boynton is on a Zoom virtual conference. We know it has been RSVP'd by  every sports columnist in the state and they all aren't wondering about new signees Donovan Williams and Matthew Alexander-Moncrieffe. Boynton will be asked about what Mike Gundy said? When does he think his Yankees will play a baseball game? When will he welcome his new team back to campus and will they be able to practice?

The best advise to Boynton is still to talking recruiting. A slip in that and the NCAA will slap your wrist. A slip on the coronavirus political correctness and a columnist will stab you with a million ballpoint pens.