CU Buffs football director cited for health violation after more than 100 players go hiking

Colorado football committed a health violation when 100+ Buffalo players went hiking together.

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Pac-12 schools simply started practicing without approval from local officials, the Colorado football team got a taste of the answer.

The Buffaloes’ director of football operation was ticketed after a video surfaced of 108 Colorado players hiking together up Mount Sanitas on Thursday.

First, that’s a violation against groups of more than 24 gathering on Boulder Open Space land, according to the report by The Daily Camera.

To make matters worse, rangers said “many participants were not wearing masks or observing social distancing when passing community members on the trail.”

Colorado football acknowledged a “lapse in judgment” after team hike.

Rick George, Colorado’s athletic director, released a statement noting how “all players who took part had recently tested negative for COVID-19.”

“All of this said, we acknowledge the lapse in judgment and apologize for our football team partaking in a group activity like this on public open space amid the current COVID-19 climate,” George added.

The funny part of all of this is that it comes on the heels of the states of California and Oregon giving approval for their Pac-12 programs to begin practicing in light of new daily testing capabilities in the conference. Before Wednesday, the likes of USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford were unable to workout in cohorts larger than 12 players.

Now that they can, theoretically, gather their 100+ players together for the first time on a practice field, Colorado makes the mistake of taking the entire team into public space.

Even if the Buffaloes have a point about being recently tested, they should have known local officials, who are trying to keep the public from participating in mass gatherings, wouldn’t be too pleased with their very public outing.

The Pac-12 and Colorado are on the verge of restarting their 2020 fall campaign with a target of late October or early November. Until they return to Folsom Field, they’ll have to keep a significantly lower profile.

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