Two things happened yesterday that will affect Pitt’s football season.  First, consensus (or near consensus as far as I can tell) all-American Defensive Tackle Jaylen Twyman opted out for the season.  Given Twyman’s history and family situation he can hardly be blamed, and I for one am proud of Pitt fans’ (and Pitt’s) response to this one.  Handled with class.  Here is Twyman’s statement:

I started playing football when I was six years old.  I immediately fell in love with it.  Football has changed my life.  It has led me to places that I could only dream of [after] growing up in Lincoln Heights.  

Football has brought me to Pitt and I love it so much.  I love putting on that blue and gold helmet and just grinding with my brothers.  

This past year has been crazy for so many people.  It makes you realize you have responsibilities beyond yourself.  That’s why I have decided to opt out of the 2020 season and declare for the 2021 NFL draft, and to return home to be with my family.  This isn’t about COVID-19.  This is about my family’s needs, now and in the future.

I want to thank Coach Narduzzi for his support in my decision.  He has always believed in me.  I want to thank him for giving me the chance to pursue my dreams at Pitt – and beyond Pitt. 

I want to thank coach Partridge who made me a better person and player every day.  

I want to thank Panther Nation for their love.  I will miss running out of the Heinz Field tunnel and hearing “Thunderstruck”.

I promised my mother and Coach Narduzzi that I will finish my degree at the University of Pittsburgh.  Pitt will always be part of me.  

Forever a Pitt Man!

Tywman Statement

And here is John McGonigal’s article that adds some notes around the situation in Twyman’s life.  Note you may have to create a free login to PG.com if you don’t have one.

And some additional context, written four years ago:

Pat Narduzzi’s statement.  Again, all class.

So long Jaylen…and best of luck in your future endeavors and we look forward to your presence around campus after you make it big in the League.

Second, this:

The downstream effect may not be a pleasant one:

Lets add a PAC-10 players strike to that list, localized team player strikes around the country, and well, I’d say that the odds are not exactly in our favor.

Pitt wants to play football, and without knowing the details, I’d be willing to bet that we have some of the most robust safety protocols in the country.  We’ve got a dedicated group of players and coaches that just want to play football.

He’s not the only one.

Here’s to hoping the ACC can figure it out, keep everyone safe, and give everybody a reason to look forward to the fall.

Hail to Pitt

Michaelangelo Monteleone

Michaelangelo holds a degree in Travel Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a former staff writer for InPittsburgh Newsweekly, and currently resides near Atlanta, Georgia. He has been a Pitt fan since 1997 after he witnessed Pitt upset #22 Miami on Thursday night at Pitt Stadium.

80 thoughts on “So Long …”

  1. It’s too bad America, couldn’t all get on the same page early on in this Pandemic. Now with the genie out of the bottle & a large segment of the American population still denying the precautions being encouraged by our Country’s public health officials are valid priorities to adhere to, we’re far from over with this epidemic.
    College football, if it happens at all will be a very different experience this season.
    I’m just sad.

    Liked by 3 people

  2. Here is what I just posted on the previous thread ………

    Twyman, as well as Ford and Jones, could have opted for the draft last year. Instead they chose to stay.

    Now they are in a position where their immediate future is a mystery. Will there a shortened version of college FB, or any FB at all …. once the season starts and facing other teams that travel, what effect will it have on the spread …. once the school year starts and the players are around the public, how susceptible will they be?

    This is not what they bargained for when they chose to stay at Pitt. Not at all. To say that any of them is now a traitor is silly IMO

    PS — and of course, I didn’t mention the chief concern that these players face … what if they tear up a knee in practice or game? And for what …. a 3 -1 record for the 2020 season?

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Pitt doesn’t utilize Bagmen, but, damn, we can attract agents with bags full of $$. And they can pass it out legally! 😉

    Liked by 1 person

  5. When camp opens each year, I even look forward to the “coach-speak.” 😊. But this year, I worry about the safety of Coaches like Randy Bates, Whip, Borbs, and Powell.

    I don’t see a season happening. And I know who I think is most responsible for this disappointing mess…

    Go Pitt.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. We have rules about no politics but you think you are special so you can hide behind a veiled comment. Not cool unless you think that you are so important that you just had to say it (but if so why not just really say it), . And MM, you should have disallowed the comment but you didn’t perhaps because you too agree that “you know who is most responsible”. Just talking truth to power.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. The ones most responsible are who you see in the mirror each day. It’s us.

        In the end it matters not if our politicians fail to lead. Leadership starts at home.

        Wear a damn mask and social distance.

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  6. Since they are finding that Coronavirus can cause heart issues in survivors is it worth the risk?

    Michael Ojo just collapsed and died after surviving Covid 19. Was there a cause and effect? An autopsy may reveal some things.

    Twyman opting out was not an irrational decision. Like anyone he weighed the risk – rewards and made a decision. Similar to anyone leaving early or Cam Johnson for obvious reasons.

    Pitt is doing everything they can to ensure safety protocols are followed, but they cannot ensure anyone’s personal safety. As was mentioned there is already the risk of blowing out a knee, concussion or other injury, adding to it the risk of unknown problems from Covid 19 tipped the scales for Twyman and others.

    It has also tipped the scales for the MAC and others. The only thing driving the P-5 to play is money. How can you blame Twyman for not playing for the same reason?

    https://www.foxnews.com/health/heart-coronavirus-patients-german-studies

    Liked by 1 person

  7. This whole issue of whether to play a 2020 season is crazy to me. Its obvious that this virus will not “just go away”. Everyone looks at the death toll from C-19 and concentrates on that, but this virus is leaving hundreds of thousands of victims with serious physical damage…and a lot of it is permanent.

    Good for this kid to make that choice, but if anyone believes that C-19 wasn’t at least a small part of his decision making, even if he stated that, they are wrong. I spoke with a member of Maryland’s football staff last week and he said that some kids are thinking it is a sign of weakness to opt out… Yet six kids did – including the starting QB.

    College ball should see the large writing on the wall and get ready to play full schedules in safety next season. Playing this year is too dangerous.

    Perspective | College sports embraced reckless greed. With the coronavirus crisis, the bill has come due.
    By Sally Jenkins

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/07/college-sports-embraced-reckless-greed-with-coronavirus-crisis-bill-has-come-due/

    Great article Mike, thanks.

    Liked by 3 people

  8. Everyone should get the antigen test. Those that have antibodies from previous exposure should be given a full checkup and monitored periodically for heart and lung disease or any other organs that this virus attacks.

    The only reason for having a season is for money. That’s not a good enough reason. Shut everything down until at least Spring like the MAC.

    Yes Pitt will most likely lose around $40 million. Use this opportunity to eliminate waste, inefficiencies, develop new revenue streams, transform the culture into a business enterprise focused on profit. Once you start treating sports as a business, your operating model and systems are radically changed for the better.

    Problem is most schools don’t treat sports as a business but the NCAA sure does. You have to be on the same page and aligned. And I can tell you right now that the NCAA doesn’t care for their football athletes….health wise or monetary. They leave it up to each individual school to make up their own guidelines to avoid responsibility and deflect blame.

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    1. If colleges ran sports like a business then you’d just have football and men’s basketball.

      Go Pitt.

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      1. You run it as a business with profitable business units subsidizing unprofitable ones. Happens all the time in business. Some units are just cost centers. Treat them as such. But overall you run at breakeven or at a profit with clear rules on how to use that profit.

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        1. Right now pitt subsidizes it’s overall department by 10-15 percent each year. Most schools in P5 run at 3-4 percent. You balance the books by raiding from the general fund.

          Now with cancellation of fall sports and the potential cancellation of spring basketball unless played in a bubble in Orlando, the loss of ticket revenues and tv money will bankrupt most school athletic departments.

          Pitt will be forced to take out a loan or be granted a one time special exemption to borrow from the endowment with interest.

          Without football, pitt stood to lose $40 million this year. I just don’t see any sports being played until next Fall.

          And now the universities have lower enrollments, will be forced to discount online learning, have all this bloated overhead and empty facilities to maintain and continue paying the debt service without any revenue coming in.

          Universities are in bad shape and the state doesn’t have the money for bailouts.

          Pitt needs to go private. And they need to cut both academic and athletic programs.

          Why the delay? Because they rely on a false sense of hope and that things will miraculously get better and fix themselves. They are delusional.

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  9. It is so ironic how the values of team play and common values has been turned on its head with ego driven responses to a cataclysmic emergency.
    The Czech Republic as a nation out of compassion for each other has followed universal masking. The results are under 400 deaths. South Korea with 50,000,00 people had a similar comprehensive approach
    Resulting in under 400 deaths.
    Here we are moving towards 200,000,000. The “United States” might think about blending in values of a team for situations like this.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Mark – you are spot on. How about adding “sportsmanship” to values of team play and common values as defined as “fair and generous behavior or treatment of others, especially in a sports contest”.

      I was taught sportsmanship at an early age and to this day when an opposing player makes an outstanding play I will remark on it – even applaud sometimes. Now it is almost like taking your life in your hands to do so if you are in the home team stands at a game.

      Sports in the US have changed so much in the last few generations that it is almost unrecognizable as .

      I know we try to keep politics off the POV but I’ll say this – I feel the main problem in the US now is the ‘us vs them’ attitude everyone seems to have and I think that was firmed up with sports fans. We somehow have been taught to love our team (political party, religion, etc.) without reservation and to hate anyone or thing which doesn’t agree with our personal beliefs. Case in point:

      My mother was a staunch Republican – going so far as to always just pulling down the ‘Republican” lever in the voting booth for a straight vote. I once asked her if she would vote for Jesus Christ if he ran for office as a Democrat.

      Her answer was “Christ would never do that!”

      Funny, but telling for me as we see that attitude all the time now in all aspects of peoples lives.

      Liked by 2 people

  10. I put a large part of the blame on parents here. I can’t count how many times in the past 10 years I was in conversations with Pitt’s player’s parents who told me their kid would be playing in the NFL. Dreaming is nice but the fact is that 2.0% of college players will get drafted and around only 3.5 % a kid will ever set foot in an NFL training camp.

    But you know the parents are huge driving forces behind kids staying on active CFB rosters this year even given the fact that every kid will stay on scholarship for the opt-out year.

    Players will be swapping sweat, spit and snot in those pile ups after tackles and blocks yet all the football program personnel are talking about are social distancing, masks and other efforts to avoid the virus outside of the game itself.

    Pure hypocrisy at it’s worse.

    Tell the college administrators, coaches and staffers they will be exposed at the same level as the players are and the 2020 season would be cancelled within an hour.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Seems like a bit of a broad brush with parental blame. Insert the word “some” or “many” and I’m fully on board. Have met a few that have things in the proper perspective and have not pushed their kids in sports, but simply support them and give them guidance when asked.

      Likewise, Im sure there are a few families where the kid is playing despite parental concern about the virus.

      The burden here is really with college BOT’s and Presidents, who have to figure out how their school/conference places safety first and foresmost for all involved, followed by an economic plan that minimizes financial devastation for employees and families. They can then instruct administrtors and coaches/staff on a direction.

      I liked the Jenkins piece as well and will watch with interest to see what happens afterwards.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Good points…but many times my brush is too wide for a subject.

        What sucks about this is that I was planning on attending a Pitt game or two to see everyone again.

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      2. Pitt’s BoT – the gift that keeps on giving us SOP.

        You know my thoughts on the BoT and what must be done.

        Tex who’s rooting for Dustin Johnson today. Only because I want to see his wife in short shorts like oakmont.

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  11. Babies are born with a clean slate. Then parents step in. Football started as a friendly game among friends. Then money stepped in. Poor analogies but what can you say.

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    1. When conferences began raiding each other breaking up natural and historical rivals, it was game over.

      College football should be subsidized by the nfl. It’s their free minor league system today. Universities need the money more than ever today. I’d sue the NFL or create onerous rules to make it difficult to draft college players. If the nfl doesn’t like it, they can create their own farm system or semi pro league. If the players don’t like it, they can go directly to the pros, play in Canada or wait for that farm system.

      But their primary mission while in college is to get an education. Playing football is a fun way to earn a free ride and great degree.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. I’ve heard many great players in different sports say that they would play pick up games in the off season just to have some fun (or ride motorcycles in Ben’s case). Players can’t dwell on the possibility of getting hurt if they play. This is what makes great players.

    Will Twyman be insulated from COVID at home? NO! In fact, he may be more exposed outside the Pitt bubble. College kids mostly play for the fun of the game, and as Reed mentioned, only about 2% will ever get a shot at the NFL. So play the games this season for fun, and let the chips fall where they may. If the season is eventually shortened, oh well…

    BTW, from the previous thread:

    Just a little private note to ike: GET YOUR BUTT TO THE DOCTOR!!

    Liked by 3 people

  14. 1) this is an ongoing issue …. as Reed stated, only a very small percentage of FB players make the NFL. But whether their kid is a prime pro candidate or in the majority, the parents have to realize that college can provide them with an pricey education as well as contacts that could lead to a fruitful non-NFL career. A ‘Life-skills’ program is so important to a school like Pitt and you would hope the parents would appreciate it.

    2) In Twyman’s case, he is likely assured to be a 3rd round or better draft pick. And by not burning any bridges ,he can choose to return if he has a change of heart as any college FB player can opt out this year. Even if he doesn’t take classes, he still would have one more year of eligibility.

    3) as expected, the P5 schools are the last to hold on to the hope of playing this year as they have the most to lose. However, I would not feel sorry for the big boys who would lose the most because they all have major boosters who will pull them thru as soon as the college Prez and AD turns on the tears and tells them how dire the situation is

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    1. Yep, the Big Boys always bounce back. Look at how the Fed is propping up the stock market.

      Totally disconnected from Main Street with people lined up at Food Banks.

      Small business owners in College towns will go under but the Big Boys will be back when this is over.

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      1. There is a huge incentive for state schools to influence the NCAA and politicians to have a season with fans.

        A school like penn state that relies so much on ticket sales is significantly hurt financially. A town like state college dependent on the fall football season will be devastated. Many businesses don’t have ample cash reserves and the loans from the government are only a short gap measure.

        But we should play football to save towns and schools and businesses? We should play if it is safe to play only. These aren’t ordinary health risks. Again you can’t have an open economy until the virus is at low levels.

        Opening up schools and playing outside a bubble is not the answer. Nothing political about the data and science.

        Nothing political what the doc said. It’s only the truth.

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    2. The elite schools have boosters that will make up for budget shortfalls. But 95 percent of schools are screwed.

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  15. Welcome back, Reed. Always good to have your latest thoughts, as occasional as they may be.

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  16. I posted this a couple weeks ago, can’t see any reason that this changes:

    Realistic scenerio:
    No college sports for 20-21. Don’t even try.
    Get a vaccine that is proven at least 90% effective. Mass produce it. Mass distribute it. Incentivize getting the vaccine. E.g., no vaccine, no college.
    Get back to “normal” mid-21 IF no missteps.
    Resume college sports fall-21.

    Amendment: IF IF IF IF no missteps.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. did a minute of research, Barvo-Young is a Jr but was A-A his 1st 2 years … but hasn’t won an NCAA title as yet. But still, a PSU wrestler having 15.5k more Insta-gram followers than the PSU QB is really something

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  18. You could monetize the POV Michael. You have plenty of readers on this blog. I don’t mind seeing an advertisement for a gentleman’s club like what Chas did on the Blather.

    Tex who will click and bait.

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  19. What exactly is the COVID risk for 20 year olds anyway? Wouldn’t it better to be on campus with UPMC a few blocks away and a group of doctors and trainers nearby, or to go home to unknown conditions and expose parents, grandparents, etc. to the risk of exposure? Frankly, this whole business of college players spouting off in their interviews how great it is to be back playing alongside their brothers is a bit too much. I guess in some of these better players’ minds they think the big payday will be coming and the heck with their teammates.

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  20. And I love how Narduzzi publicly gushes all over Twyman’s decision, saying he will always be a Panther, when inside he is probably thinking how ungrateful and selfish he is to cost Pitt what could possibly be a 10th win this season. Narduzzi probably hoped he could get Tex off his back with that 10th win.

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    1. You’re dreaming or on some good drugs for thinking Narduzzi could win ten with a full team and season.

      Tex who is narduzzis monkey

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      1. What cheap hire out there can win 10? Pitt can’t find them anyways. No one since Cas Myslinski has been a football guy in charge of making those decisions. Pitt is better off doing with Narduzzi what Virginia did years ago with George Welsh: keep him for stability alone.

        Welsh was a really good coach in a tough job. I’m sick of Pitt spinning its wheels and making a change for the sake of change. Don’t those bright administrators realize what they’ve been doing for years is a terrible way of doing business?

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        1. Who says hire cheap. That’s the problem. Pitt brought in Narduzzi for a hair over two million. Lyke started at $400k. You get what you pay for.

          Stability is overrated. Pitt is stable at mediocrity. The avg coaching tenure is only five years anyway.

          You make change to do better.

          Tex who has the list of 5…for a price.

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          1. Pitt is the epitome of hiring cheap coaches and saying “show us what you got then we’ll talk” contracts. Then Canada showed plenty and the best Pitt could do is dupe the fans by saying “Well, we offered a million a year. LSU can have him since we don’t do bidding wars.” That is how you end up with a Watson.

            Then Louisville shows us how you run a program by hiring Satterfield, a guy who actually had head coaching experience.Prostitutes and all, that school makes Pitt look like fools when it comes to wanting to win in athletics.

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            1. Couple things Nate and with all the respect in the world:

              Canada would be making more money at PITT than he does with the Steelers.

              Louisville athletics are no any better then PITT and even while they cheat their tails off.

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            2. Yeah, I said the same a few years ago about Clemson not hiring a guy with head coaching experience. Damn fools!

              “In October 2008, former Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips promoted Swinney to interim head coach, replacing Tommy Bowden.

              Swinney was only 38 years old, a wide receivers coach and had never even been a coordinator. Many fans were not happy about the decision.”

              BTW how did that work out for those cheap fools?

              Liked by 3 people

  21. OT – Nike and Tony Finau sporting Pitt colors at the PGA championship today?

    Six guys tied for the lead a few minutes ago – Tony was one of the six…

    Great live TV

    EE who’s reading that the majority of CFB players of want to play

    Liked by 2 people

  22. It isn’t the off field C-19 concerns that are most worrisome…as I stated earlier it is the practices, scrimmages and games where these kid are going to be most susceptible to the virus. It really doesn’t matter how well a school protects and tests their players. It is how well the other team does that they have to worry about.

    And I feel that any school administrators who requires a player to sign away the school’s C-19 liability if the kids get the illness should be lined up and stoned to death…or something.

    Of course anyone who thinks the players are going to live in a monastery between games is kidding themselves also. Get them on campus and they will act like the testosterone driven kids they are.

    Wow, the POV is fun!😉

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  23. ThHs is why I got so fed up with ‘coachspeak’ hat I quit going to pressure. From the P-G two days ago:

    “Bates, meanwhile, said the thought of Jones, Hamlin, Jaylen Twyman or Paris Ford opting out “never” crossed his mind.

    “They came back to play for Pitt,” Bates said of the NFL prospects, all of whom practiced Friday. “They came back to play for their teammates. It would be very shocking to me (if they left), especially going out there today and watching them play. They’re so excited to be out there with each other.”

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  27. Ike – Sadly Louisville completely blows Pitt out of the water in every athletic category. Facilities, Coaches, Salaries. We aren’t even in the same hemisphere as them in Athletics. Look at Director Cup and Prepare to Throw Up.

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    2. July 15, 2020 “The Galt House Hotel has committed $3.5 million to the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Athletic Fund, to be paid over ten years.

      The donation will be used for the expansion and renovation of the Planet Fitness Kueber Center, which is home to the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the women’s lacrosse teams.”

      This is how its done folks. So break open those piggy banks, reach deep into those pockets and you too can have some of the best college athletics money can buy!

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    4. I believe SMU became the first and currently only football program to get the death penalty.

      Louisville basketball came close VERY CLOSE to getting the death penalty in basketball. If you don’t believe me; try Google, Bing or ask the guy sitting next to you at the bar at Primanti’s.

      THANK GOD, Pitt isn’t in that Louisville hemisphere.

      Liked by 2 people

  28. U. of Louisville Football
    All Time Record: 514–469–17 (.523)
    0 National Football titles
    1 Big East Championship while Pitt was in the Big East
    2 Big East Co-Championships after Pitt Left
    0 ACC Divisional Championships
    2019 Season record: 8-5

    U. of Pittsburgh Football
    All Time Record 732–539–42 (.573)
    9 National Football Titles
    2 Big East Co-Championships
    1 ACC Divisional Championship
    2019 Season Record 8-5

    This is what that all that money and coaching can buy you for football. Ask yourself, is it worth it?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Most of any winning we did was before the oldest POV reader was even born. Over the last 10 years they are way more relevant in basketball and football.

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  29. Lots of talk on the web about P-5 season cancellation due to covd-19. Big 10 presidents are meeting about now. Lot’s of concerns about cardiac complications after recovery, particularly inflammation. The dominoes are wobbling. Apparently nobody wants to be the 1st but this could change quickly. Lots of talk about a spring season but there are as many questions and unknowns about that as there are about this fall (maybe more.) I say cancel. Let’s protect the kids and the staff. H2P

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Like

  30. Since 1990 Louisville has won the Fiesta Bowl (Schnellenberger), the Sugar Bowl (Strong), Orange Bowl (Petrino), have a Heisman winner and currently have a new coach who took a 2-10 team to eight wins.

    That happens due to smart people making smart decisions that lead to donations and fan support. Yeah, I’ll take Pitt’s overall history in a heartbeat, but in these times give me Louisville’s will to win any day.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. When Schellenberger left Louisville he said, “I didn’t leave because of money. I wasn’t looking to go anywhere until that president (Dr. Donald Swain) pulled that baloney and put us in that conference that I didn’t want to be in.” Schnellenberger’s record at Louisville was two games under .500.

      Right after Charlie Strong won the Sugar Bowl for Louisville in 2013 he left to coach U. of Texas where he was fired 3 years later.

      On January 7, 2007,just after winning the Orange Bowl and less than six months after signing a ten-year contract for $25.6M, Petrino left Louisville for the Atlanta Falcons.

      So is your comment an example of Louisville’s smart people making smart decisions ( i.e., the head coaches) or donations and fan support?

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    2. They treat sports as a business. They are financially savvy. Immoral. But they have built a culture of winning.

      Pitt needs to emulate Stanford.

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  31. There are a couple of teams that the meat mention of their names makes me want to shower to get the stench off. Louisville is one, Baylor is another, anyplace that hires Bruce Pearl can also make the list.
    Some things just aren’t worth it. Those teams could win NCs every year, it wouldn’t be worth it.

    Liked by 1 person

  32. That’s like the self claiming national titles. You can cherry pick total records or one season over the lifetime of schools or go over the last 20 years which is more revealing about how the programs are viewed today. Louisville over the last 20 years in football is 155-86 for a win percent of 64.3% versus Pitt at 136-105 for a 56.4%. Most football fans would say that Louisville football is better than Pitt. I personally think they are quite even, but Louisville prioritizes sports.

    Pitt’s lowest win season was 5 during the last 20 years. Lewisvilles was 2 wins and 4 wins after two coach firings. Lewisville had 5 seasons of double digit victories in the last 20 seasons, maxxing out at 12 wins in 2006 and 2013. Pitt’s max win season was 10, and they did it once under Wanny.

    So let’s go to basketball, baseball and softball…..well, let’s not. I don’t think that would be close, at all. I would gladly take some more priority on sports from Pitt.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. With respect to the liability issues with C-19. There is none. Why, because science (or lack thereof) cannot prove where you contract it, unless a university uses contact tracing to track an athlete and the athlete can prove they never left campus. At that point you can prove you got the virus on campus but not from where. What exactly did a university or employer, or anyone do that was negligent? Why aren’t the dockets flooding with litigation? They aren’t except for the nursing homes. Why, because that population is not mobile for the most part.

    It’s like trying to sue somebody for contracting the flu from them. How do you do this exactly? That said, a frontline hospital worker can probably have success filing a workers compensation claim if they contract the virus, but that too is dependent on facts (i.e. did you treat a person that had it and for how long, etc.). Still very difficult to pursue a claim although I would recommend to hospital administrators to convince their insurance companies to pay for such things….why? In business, companies are required to purchase workers compensation insurance. Part of that requirement is a quid pro quo. In exchange for the required purchase of WC insurance, state regulators disallow any worker to sue their employer for negligence. It is called the exclusive remedy doctrine and can only be be pierced with gross negligence actions which with covid, cannot ever be considered “gross negligence” because the science still isn’t clear. That doesn’t come from a neighbor thats a doc or a friend of a doc of a doc who is an obgyn. The science is still in disagreement on many things covid. I don’t have an opinion on the science because i am not an epidemiologist or infectious disease doc. I dont listen to the news or read the news on this. I have spoken to at least 20 epidemiologists and infectious disease docs personally and they don’t agree. At some point somebody will be more right than the other, but to dig your heels in on any theory right now is like a vegas bet. Too early as sad as that sounds!

    One more thing….If you pay players, they would be employees. If they are employees, the university WC costs escalate to an unmanageable $ amount. WC would cover concussions, scratches, minor breaks, etc. which would bankrupt athletic department budgets because those cases can stay open until death. For all other cases, insurance doctors would have to deem a player able to play, not a team physician. If they are deemed independent contractors, Pitt would require they carry their own insurance. They would not be able to afford it. No booster can buy that insurance for someone else because there is no privity of contract. Good grief! What a conundrum! But there are solutions.

    I typed last week or two ( before vacation) that many more high round draft picks would be opting out of the current season. Pitt has a chance to take the lead across higher ed in a few areas regarding athletics and this is one of them. If our AD was on it and thinking things through, she would make the right moves to elevate Pitt. My sense is she has no idea on what to do next.

    Sorry for the long rant. Been away awhile….Any RKB updates? Thats my boy right there. Hoping and praying he has rebounded! Trust me, he was a good rebounder!! 🙂

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  35. I guess Tuesday will bring us to where we were going all along. Hey, don’t get me wrong, cancelling the season isn’t being done for any moral or safety reasons, they’re just afraid to get sued.
    I still have a hard time believing those southern schools will cancel. Things must be a heck of a lot worse than I thought. I mean think about it, NO football in the south!! All the $$$ lost. It HAS to be way worse than anyone thinks for them to do it. I still won’t believe it will happen until they announce it.
    I would think students on campus will last till October, these towns will be like the ghost towns in the old west. Man, we are just screwed.

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  36. If the season is to be canceled then lets get it canceled. That way I can get my yelling, screaming and kicking (no crying) out of the way and find an alternative in my life. Like going down to my basement and play video games, kind of like the same thing. It’s all a fantasy anyways.

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  37. Theres no crying in fandom Ike….or something like that.

    Not about fear of litigation Joe Knew. Who is liable and how do you determine who gave it to you or where? There is only one group of litigants that will be successful as of right now and it is the elderly, who were confined to a nursing home and can prove they had no outside visitors.

    Absent that, there is no way (right now) to prove exactly where you got it. Plenty of theories abound like parties, nightclubs, toilet seats (remember that big scare from HIV/AIDS). You can bring theories, but theories don’t pay. You need to prove someone was negligent. Good luck.

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  38. Huff, one thing I know is that the law can be interpreted different ways. If not, there would be no litigation and no lawyers. Your brief is well thought out and is most probably correct, however, I can pretty much promise someone will have a different perspective and sue, that’s what happens.
    I will pose one question. Why then would conferences cancel out a multi- million, no, a multi- billion business? No, the science is actually pretty consistent here. Next time, ask your epidemiologists what studies they are referencing concerning inconsistencies. The basics are pretty solid, some disagreement on some minor things, but the science is solid.

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  39. Just go back from the beginning and do a timeline from the cdc. Read everything from day 1 on C19. After reading it all, then come back and make an argument that the science was clear from the beginning. If you can honestly say that, I’ll hire you and have the docs replaced.

    Yes, some lawyers will sue WHEN they find out how to stick someone with liability, but as of yet, the only ones that can be proven are the nursing homes and in addition the individuals in the nursing homes that had no visitors and couldn’t leave. Those are the only ones that can say that they for sure contracted it in spot x and no other way. At that point there is a duty of care to protect them, which may or may not have been breached.

    Contact tracing is seen as a defense tactic as it can prove that you were away from a controlled environment. Unfortunately, it can also prove that you contracted it, while on a campus and never left. Catch 22 occurs. Look, insurance companies are already excluding all liability in the policies they underwrite. As such, employers and universities have difficult business decisions to make, which is whether they want to take a chance or not. My advice has been to do zero contact tracing and make a plaintiff prove where virus was contracted, especially since so many millions have or had it already and you can get it from just about anywhere….except toilet seats, lol. Did you spray and wipe your mail? And vegetables? That was the science when this started….

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    1. Cogently argued. Let the record state that we do do in fact spray and wipe our veggies, and quarantine all mail for at least 24 hours.

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