The New York Times wrote recently that College Football shouldn't be played because school were pressuring players to play during a pandemic.
The remarks created a furore, with many fans - on both sides of the political spectrum - yelling about how wrong the New York Times was and 'how there was no pressure to play'.
A brilliant journalist, Tony Barnhart, wrote a piece saying he disagreed with the NYT piece, and all the people who haven't agreed with anything that the paper has written in its entire life, has jumped on the bandwagon, even if Uncle Tony's piece was an utterly respectful part of the day.
But to say that a player doesn't or shouldn't feel pressured into the season just because the NCAA are giving a player opt-outs just ain't true. In the words of Tom Cruise in 'A Few Good Men': "Any attempt to prove otherwise will prove futile because it just ain't true".
Think about your lineman who came in as a four-star recruit from, let's say, Ohio. He's moved to the South because he can't stand the winters on the tundra anymore, and this SEC school has shown that it vomits out talent more than a sorority chapter at Arizona State.
He hasn't had the best career. He's managed to push himself enough to remain on the team for three years, but his film doesn't hold up to those in his area. At the moment.
2020 was going to be his year. There was a new quarterback in town, the line looked good, and if he did well, he was going to jump into the 2021 Draft as a high-to-mid second rounder. I mean he's not got the talent that Micah Parson, Ja'Marr Chase and numerous others have at their positions, but he should be a good pick if he gets his 2020 together.
And then Armageddon happens. People start getting sicker and sicker. College football's done in Ohio, but it's still on in SEC Country.
The opt-in/opt-out clause doesn't suit him. He's from a poor family and he didn't actually go to his SEC school for the academics. He's not a brainiac like Rev. So he needs a season, and he needs it yesterday.
THAT'S PRESSURE.
If he opts-out, the guys behind him coming in from recruitment are a bunch of five-stars. He might not even see the field in 2021 because it's so competitive. He knows that and his coach knows that. With the opt-ins, there's going to be more rooms for scholarships, and that means that schools are going to be dripping in talent. Especially his place, where you throw a dart, you hit a four or five-star player. The guy he's going to face off with if he opts out for the season, is a fresh-faced, 400lb lineman from Wisconsin that happened to eat a farm during his growing-up years.
THAT'S PRESSURE.
His teammates want to play, and so therefore he feels duty-bound to go and help them. Plus, no-one's got COVID-19 on the team (so they keep telling him), and they are prepared to take a vow of chastity over the next few months. A real vow of chastity, not the Jerry Fallwell vow of chastity. The players have been very persuasive, and they are 'recruiting' him to stay on the team.
THAT'S PRESSURE
Social media crap's rifer than COVID, yet - like any 21 year-old God, he likes to see what people say at him. He's been pretty Twitter-crazy lately because of different stuff from the unimportant stuff like the NBA Play-Offs to the higher calling of social justice protesting. And if he decides not to play in 2020, won't everyone just call him a loser?
THAT'S PRESSURE.
His team is unravelling. Players are opting out left, right and center. He's actually got the chance to stand out, be a leader, and be praised. People will look at him as a light shining in the darkness. He's not going to heal the sick, but he might pass a few band-aids around.
THAT'S PRESSURE.
Oh, and there's also the feeling of being a competitor. He's been told all of his life that he's never going to be a loser. Opting out of a 2021 will feel like like losing to him, and whether we like it or not, that's pressure.
