Alabama football wants a season, but some are making matters worse.
College students are coming back to campuses around the country. As they do, all eyes are watching to see how it impacts COVID-19 cases. Things aren’t off to a great start in Tuscaloosa, and this Alabama football player is calling people out on it.
Chris Owens is a fifth-year senior on the offensive line for the Crimson Tide, and he needs college football more than almost anyone. However, he thinks that the fanbase can be doing more to help us get there. He posted this on Twitter recently.
How about we social distance and have more than a literal handful of people wear a mask? Is that too much to ask Tuscaloosa? pic.twitter.com/gZ4MbbmBZn
— Chris Owens (@BGChrisOwens) August 16, 2020
The picture he posted includes what appears to be over 100 students waiting to get in to a bar on the Strip, only a few hundred yards away from Bryant-Denny Stadium. Very few patrons are wearing masks, and no one is socially distanced.
This goes against the mask ordinance put in place by Governor Kay Ivey. Cases in Alabama have gone down since the ordinance was put into place, and that optimism is helping make college football possible. However, we’ll need to see what happens over the next few weeks.
Students were required to get tested for COVID-19 before starting classes again, but that won’t do much. Some students were tested back home, and others had to wait multiple days before their results came back. They could have received a negative test and contracted COVID-19 while they waited for the result.
We’ll have to see how the SEC responds to a potential increase in positive tests, but they are trying their best to have a college football season. With them trying to do so, we need to do our part as well. That includes staying socially distanced whenever possible, wearing masks, and staying home if we feel sick.
These actions will save lives. That should be enough of a reason to do so. If not, it might also save the college football season. Alabama football is doing their best to stay safe, but they can’t do it by themselves unless they are in a bubble. If they are going to classes with students and working on projects, they are at risk. We’ll have to watch how the situation unfolds before the predicted start of the college football season.