In this time of disease, the one given to us by the Chinese, the impact is univeral in nature. In the United States suicides, divorces, child mental problems, loss of jobs not to mention the myriad of problems that go with it has run our lives for going on a year.
Last night I was getting ready to watch the Iowa State-DePaul college basketball game and flipped on ESPN except there was a story about the history of football. "G-dammit", I said to myself, "The game has been cancelled." And I was correct.
DePaul had a student manager test positive for the cold so they opted out. It's too bad for them. They probably would have won.
Anyway, I began considering the number of student athletes in the United States from age 22 on down to Pee Wee Johnson in the lower grades and how they're doing fighting this disease. The bigger question for me was, how many student athletes, boy and girl,(male and female) have succumed to the virus. It didn't take long to find the answer.
Happily, there has been only one athlete in the continental United States, Jemain Stephens, who has passed. He was a football player at California University of Pennsylvania. His father is a former NFL player and Jemain, though not of that caliber, was a well-like and well-respected young man who went too soon at age 20.
There's more to the story, however. Jemain died of a blood clot in his heart. He was a 6'3" lineman who tipped the scales at 355 lbs. I have his photo but why publish it? Three hundred-fifty five pounds explains my point.
So, here we have every college and every high school and God knows who else shutting down whatever and whenever to have a huge CYA.
I don't know about you but it doesn't seem copacetic to this guy to shut down our lives, especially sports, but we all know my views don't me diddly.
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