West Virginia defensive back Kerry Martin is skipping the college football season.
Martin announced the decision on his Twitter early Wednesday morning, writing in part, “I don’t feel that it is safe to play while there’s a virus that we have no forms of a cure or know the long term affects [sic] of the virus as many athletes are currently having heart and other respiratory problems.” (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Mountaineer forever ???? pic.twitter.com/bTVNy6b3lz
— Kerry “KJ” Martin Jr.???? (@KMartinJr11) August 5, 2020
I’m not a medical expert, but I do follow college football closely. I’m not sure I’m buying Martin’s statement.
Are there “many athletes” with “respiratory problems” because of coronavirus? If there are, the news has failed to find and cover them.
View this post on Instagram
If there were a bunch of athletes with health problems, it’d be getting wall-to-wall coverage. Now, there have been some isolated incidents, but nothing on a large scale as far as anyone knows.
Secondly, and less importantly, it’s amazing how much the West Virginia football news cycle has focused on Martin.
View this post on Instagram
Defensive coordinator Vic Koenning left the program this offseason after Martin accused the coach of “heinous actions.” These alleged actions included calling the defensive back “retarded” after a mistake on the field, defending protesters/rioters being tear gassed, saying a wall should be built by Trump to keep Hispanics out of the country and lecturing Martin about religion.
Now he’s opting out of the season. I can’t remember the last time a defensive back from a Big 12 program had this much attention on him.
View this post on Instagram
Best of luck to him going forward, and we’ll have to see what the Mountaineers can do without him this season.