So many of you have spent years of your lives training and competing your asses off. Some of you have been playing football since you could walk, some maybe got into it after some coercion from your best friends, some of you were even like me who was put into football so they could have an outlet for their destructive tendencies. No matter what the reason, many of you rose to the top of your sport as a high school kid and were offered full ride scholarships. Some of you didn't and were so determined to not give up on your dream you either walked on or went the FCS/D-II/D-III route. No matter the road you've taken, it is just as admirable and valid as any other. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that for 99.9% of us, this is the final stop of playing organized ball. It's a dream many of us share, but the numbers simply aren't there for many to break into the NFL and even if you are lucky enough to do so, there's little guarantee you stay in it long enough to comfortably live after you hang it up. We all have to eventually move on to the next phase of our lives and do something other than football long term. I say this from personal experience, enjoy this time as much as you can, because the real world on average tends to be a hell of a lot more boring than the roaring crowds, the exhilaration of victory, and being able to physically impose your will on another man.
That's what precisely makes this all so much more painful, having this precious time ripped away from you because of something completely out of your control with a worldwide pandemic ravaging the country. Some of you have lost your entire seasons outright, while the others are playing a truncated schedule that may not even run to its conclusion with the risk of outbreaks on campus and within the programs themselves (North Carolina and Notre Dame didn't even make it to the completion of this piece before shifting classes to online). Whether you were a young underclassman ready to show the world what you're made of or an upperclassman hoping to go out on top and potentially realize your lifelong dreams of going pro. You've been robbed, and you have a right to be frustrated, angry, depressed even. It is perfectly normal and human reaction to show great emotion when you see your life's passion ripped away from you. I just want you to not let the anguish of this moment anchor you down for the rest of your life. It's not your fault.
At the time of this writing, D-II/D-III Fall championships have been cancelled. G5 conferences like the MAC and Mountain West and even Power 5 conferences in The Big Ten and Pac-12 have cancelled their seasons in their entirety with the hope of potentiailly playing in spring.
The current situation is certainly bleak and it may seem easy to give into despair, but if you were the kind of person who'd roll over in the face of such adversity, you wouldn't have made it to this point in the first place! Already we've seen multiple player-led movements not only fighting for their seasons in tandem pushing for concrete, effective safety measures, but even going a step further in tying it to the current social justice movement ongoing in this country and acknowledging the current corrupt structure of an collegiate system that makes billions off the backs of your talent yet restricts you more than your fellow students on campus.
This has all been a lot for you to process, and as someone now looking in the rear view mirror of their athletic career I just want you to keep certain things in mind...
-At the end of the day, you and your teammates are all you've got. You may have fans and other outside support cheering on your cause, but as I'm sure you've noticed after looking up Twitter after a bad game, they won't always be in your corner and more often than not are cheering more for the name on the front of the jersey rather than the back. All they care about is being entertained, and god forbid the worst case scenario happens and you contract this virus and have lasting health issues they won't give a flying f*** about you (You didn't die after all, since apparently that is the only true metric of an illness's severity). Put yourself and your teammates well being ahead of anything else, and for those still lucky enough to have a season at the time of this writing....
-HOLD EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE. Maybe it will prove to be too much holding an entire football season in the age of COVID, but if you're going to try, a heightened level of maturity and discipline is going to be necessary to make this work. That means following the science, wear a mask, socially distance the best you can, no sneaking out to the co-ed dorms for some tail. It sucks, I get that, but what's going on now is bigger than you and not doing so is effectively conceding to your teammates and coaches that you don't give a shit about them. It doesn't guarantee you from avoiding contracting the virus, but anything you can do to help your chances the better. If that means cussing out or swinging on a selfish motherf***** who refuses to do so then so be it!
The future has always been unpredictable, even more so in a time like this. Maybe you all can make this work or maybe it's just too big of a mountain to overcome when we're already so far behind the curve. As long as you hold the desire within you to compete and the courage to blaze that trail in such a unique moment, you can hold your heads high. I will always be in your corner willing to lend a word. Take care kiddos.
-Oni
-