Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips thinks there’s a real chance the football season won’t happen because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Phillips said the following during a recent interview with WBBM about the fate of the football season amid the ongoing crisis:
There’s absolutely a possibility it may not happen — or any of our fall sports. Maybe we’ll play 12 games, maybe you won’t be able to play any. Maybe there’s a reduced schedule you can have. Everybody’s trying to figure this out as we go along…There will be a college football season only if and when the medical experts, CDC, state regional and national leaders declare it to be safe. And it won’t be made by a football coach, an athletic director or a university president.
While I respect the fact Phillips is being pretty blunt about the situation, I hope like hell he’s dead wrong. I’m cheering against him at all costs. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
I simply refuse to accept a reality where college football doesn’t happen in the fall. I know it’s an option on the table, but I refuse to accept it.
We have to do whatever is necessary to beat coronavirus and save our football season. We have to listen to the medical experts, we have to be responsible with our social distancing and we can’t take unnecessary risks.
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I truly believe if we do what we’re supposed to do and listen to the game plan from the experts, then football will happen in the fall.
Again, I respect Phillips honesty and outlook. He’s a fellow B1G man, but I’m praying with every ounce of my soul he turns out to be wrong.
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I’m simply not sure if America can survive without football.
We’re all in this together.#OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/IZymD7RLya
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) March 28, 2020