Colorado State investigated for ignoring coronavirus protocols
Colorado State is in hot water for allegations that coronavirus protocols are being blatantly mishandled and ignored.
Colorado State is the latest school to be involved in a student-athletes rights dispute. It was announced Tuesday by Colorado State University President Joyce McConnell that an immediate and objective investigation into the athletic department was going to be done. Allegations of leaders intimidating and threatening student-athletes at the school in an effort to disregard COVID-19 protocols is at the core of the investigation.
According to ESPN’s Myron Medcalf, there has been support for the investigation from Athletic Director Joe Parker. Colorado State football players have made their voices heard on social media and this extends to the volleyball team also. Multiple players, sports medicine staff, and coaches spoke anonymously for fear of retribution.
Colorado State announced on July 20 that 11 football players and five other athletes tested positive for COVID-19. From there, the handling of this situation got worse and worse. Multiple Rams football players were told by a position coach to hide their symptoms because they can’t afford it as a team.
One player who later tested positive was afraid to share his symptoms with the coaching and medical staff. If a player tests positive, the CDC recommends a 14-day quarantine. Rams head football coach Steve Addazio ignored that recommendation after the team paused athletic activities July 29 and told the team that activities were going to resume as early as this week. Team spokesman Kyle Neaves told ESPN that the quarantine was voluntary and the original press release on the matter said there would be a return to complete team activities within two weeks.
Does the Colorado State investigation encapsulate what the NCAA thinks of student-athletes?
Well, it certainly doesn’t make Colorado State look good and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if other schools are already doing this. This week, the Washington State football program came under scrutiny. According to the New York Times’ Billy Witz, sophomore Wide Receiver Kassidy Woods called new head coach Nick Rolovich to opt-out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 and because he was diagnosed with the sickle cell trait before coming to Washington State. Rolovich was perfectly fine with that but when it came to Woods joining the Pac-12 Conference unity group, Rolovich told him that would be a problem. Woods is still on scholarship this season, but he and redshirt junior defensive end Dallas Hobbs were kicked off the team.
These two very unfortunate situations indicate that the players have no power in how their wellbeing is managed. Student-athletes are commodities to the NCAA, cash cows. They don’t receive any real means of compensation for their services until they leave the NCAA for the professional leagues. The health and safety of the players should be the most important thing to the institutions and it’s not. The players can’t unionize either, so they don’t have protection against the disrespect and mistreatment that they endure. Hopefully, in the next 10-20 years, this changes and the players get what they deserve.