Student-Athletes are not employees. They should not be told to play on Christmas if they don’t want to. I would imagine given all that 2020 has thrown at us that many Christmas gatherings will take place on Zoom so even if they can’t “travel home to be with family” like in a normal year they could still be with their family virtually.
College basketball is being played at all sorts of weird times this year. Doesn’t mean they have to play on Christmas as this is purely a money grab in which the labor does not benefit from. Zero reason they couldn’t play this game on the 23rd or 27th or something to get away from the holiday. If Livers/M took a stand and didn’t play in this game, I would support them on that. And I hope/think Juwan would as well.
I agree with that too EOG. As easy as it is to make the case that the players deserve to enjoy more of the value they create from this whole endeavor, well, also, you know what you signed up for and your role is to be ready to play when the schedule says you play. Let your coach handle those questions, and if you want to partake in changing the sport there are better ways to do it through organizing and advocacy and all that.
But Livers is kind of following a different model here, and maybe that’s on purpose and he associates being a senior captain with also being someone who might comment on the wider issues or do something like kneeling before the first game, etc. And maybe Juwan is fine with having his captains take on that role. Dunno.
I’m sure Zoom works as well in Lincoln, Nebraska as it does in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I would bet my life that they aren’t going to be denied family phone/Zoom calls because its a game day.
I get that. But on the schools terms, not the players. There is travel involved, shoot around, pre game meetings, medical testing/treatment, warm-ups. Not exactly a ton of time once all those pieces are put into place.
Livers comments were very candid. Many players are probably thinking what he said, jut most wouldn’t say it. So I wouldn’t take it to mean he won’t be ready or would rather sit out. I think he was just referring to the bizarreness of the whole thing. I think he understands that even if they didn’t have a game he wouldn’t be able to be at home.
Right, doesn’t even have to be said.
Such that if he didn’t say it, and the team performed poorly, folk that want to attribute it to the players lacking enthusiasm, would do it anyway.
Coach K questions whether they should be playing in the middle of a pandemic. Few fans have expressed an appreciation for the sacrifices that these players are making to even play. Fewer have publicly challenged the wisdom of doing so. The players hear the silence.
And now they are being asked to play on Christmas, during a pandemic?
I’m thinking Howard green lighted Livers comments, explicitly or implicitly.
Yeah. I’m undecided about whether Robert Porcher on the Lions in the 90s is a comparison. He used to be blunt about playing on Christmas. As a fan, part of sports culture in general is believing your players are passionate and ready to show up anywhere/anytime and play in any conditions. We’re sold that sorta mentality as part of it, as if these people aren’t also humans who just want to enjoy holidays themselves. But in the end Livers is no one’s employee and when you’re a pro you should get told to suck it up and all that but this is not pro spots. I worked plenty on Christmas in the past, but really enjoyed the double-time pay and that was my choice.
Another argument for being a bit more strategic about it. Do M/MSU and there’s no significant travel involved. Bloomington and West Lafayette are two hours away from each other.
I always watch the NBA matchups on Christmas. So from a fan perspective, I’m already primed to watch basketball. (But if you’re not a Mich or Neb fan, you’re probably watching better games.)
And if not, I’m still for Livers just speaking his mind. These guys are adults and it’s kind of a lousy gig. Maybe speaking up was the equivalent of throwing up a trial balloon–see if there’s any way to cancel it. Never know until you try.
And in re: Dot, Juwan may not be licking his chops at the prospect, either.
To be fair, I don’t think anyone would be too enthusiastic about a relatively long trip from AA to Lincoln to play this Nebraska team no matter what day it was played on. It’s sort of an adding insult to injury situation.
Right. It’s been an enormous challenge for everyone. Forget about the physical commitment, when do these guys get to exhale emotionally.
You’ve got people dying from this thing. Relatives scared as crap for them. Amazed at how casual some are when it comes to discussing them playing a game.
Regarding playing during a pandemic: My experience with HS athletes is they almost all want to play. I don’t know a single one that does not want to play and they do. Though slightly older my sense is that college athletes have assessed their risks and also want to play and they do.
I might buy that older coaches do not want to play during a pandemic but honestly I think most of them want to play too.
What is my evidence? Outside of the Bowling Green coach these athletes and coaches really are not doing a good job of keeping their masks on. Often the coaches seem to be wearing the least effective masks and they all too often wearing them as chinstraps anyway…
If nothing else I nominate the BG coach for an award for keeping his mask on better than any player or coach I have seen. By far…
Probably not wise in a pandemic to refuse to play when you might have to actually cancel games because of covid. Dan Dakich said the big ten players were behind the idea of wanting to play on Christmas and get games in. Maybe Livers wasn’t but this is what the players wanted.
They either play or they don’t. We either watch and support it, or we don’t. There are no moral bonus points for watching it but expressing deep reservations about it.
This is what got the conference in trouble with football. They couldn’t just choose to either be the SEC or the Ivy League. They pretended to be superior, when they weren’t and ended up looking worse than the southern conferences who just admitted they didn’t care.