#WeWantToPlay Power 5 Football Players Join Together to Push for Season
Could the Power 5 conferences look to be postponing the upcoming 2020-2021 football season?
According to multiple reports, this week is incredibly crucial in finalizing whether leagues such as Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC) will continue with the 2020-2021 football season.
Commissioners of the Power 5 conferences held an emergency meeting on Sunday concerning the upcoming football season and the growing concern over the sport being challenging to play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to ESPN, Big Ten presidents met on Saturday and are ready to call the season, postponing it to the spring. They are currently gauging if the decision is to be made, will the remaining Power 5 schools fall in line.
"It doesn't look good," one Power 5 athletic director said.
Due to the Power 5 commissioners meeting, ACC athletic directors will meet Monday morning; sources tell ESPN.
"It's gotten to a critical stage," one conference commissioner told Sports Illustrated Sunday, "I think all of us will be meeting with our boards in the coming days. We have work to do that is no fun.".
In addition, sources told SI, "I think by the end of the week, the fall sports will be postponed in all conferences."
But what about the players? How do they feel about the possibility of the season being canceled?
Clemson's Trevor Lawrence has taken the lead in joining players all over the country under one hashtag, #WeWantToPlay. The hashtag signifies the unity of players choosing to opt-in for the season while understanding the associated risk. Lawrence's sentiments have been shared all over social media,
"People are at just as much, if not more risk, if we don't play. Players will all be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely, and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract COVID-19. Not to mention the players coming from situations that are not good for them/their future and having to go back to that.
Football is a safe haven for so many people. We are more likely to get the virus in everyday life than playing football. Having a season also incentivizes. Players are safe and take all of the right precautions to avoid contracting COVID because the season/teammate's safety is on the line. Without the season, as we've seen already, people will not social distance or wear masks and take the proper precautions."
North Carolina wide receiver Beau Corrales reiterated Lawrence's statements, and added in that even with underlying conditions, he wants to play ball,
The players are willing to to make sacrifices to ensure a football season, what will it take for leadership to hear them completely and oblige to their efforts?
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