Former Michigan football captain Jon Jansen says the 2020 season was "stolen" from U-M's players. Potential fifth-year senior defensive back Tyler Cochran blames administrative incompetence for the demise of his final shot at football.
Cochran embodies the seething anger of any number of players who don't feel as free to speak out, because they'll still be playing for Michigan — when football eventually returns. They did everything they could. They did everything properly.
They got locked out.
Former players such as TheWolverine.com's own Doug Skene isn't pulling any punches, either. He let fly on a podcast here and in an interview for next week's magazine regarding his fired-up thoughts on the perceived injustice of it all.
The Big Ten and the Pac-12 are sitting this one out. Skene never thought he'd be rooting for the SEC and ACC, but he is. He hopes they play, and do so safely, to demonstrate precisely what Michigan players and coaches thought they were underscoring — this can all be done without significant harm to those involved.
Medical experts — some, anyway — disagree, or are at least uncertain enough for two of the Power Five leagues to pull the plug. So be it. Barring another successful trick play by Ohio State head coach Ryan Day (an eight-game season, beginning the first Saturday in January), the Wolverines can kiss football goodbye until the fall of 2021 (or forever, for some).
The discussion with Skene prompted a devil's advocate question. That's a dangerous proposition, given that he's a very large human still salty over the decision, armed with five Big Ten championship rings to make any punch deliver enhanced dents.
Okay, here's what some will say. These guys just want football, and don't care about anyone or anything else. They don't care if people get sick and maybe even die. It's all about the game, without regard to a very real pandemic. What would you say to them?
Skene didn't hesitate, or equivocate.
“I would say that’s absolutely not true," he offered. "This is not about some sort of indifference toward people that could possibly get hurt. I’m going off of the statistics that have been explained, and the protocols that have been put forth by the CDC that Michigan has been following.
“I understand that the risks are out there. There was a young man from Michigan State that said he wasn’t going to play, because he didn’t feel it was safe for his family. Obviously, there is a connectivity there between the family and the young man at Michigan State.
“I think they had someone get severely ill, or even lost someone. That’s terrible. I’m not dismissing any of that."
What he IS saying involves precisely what Jim Harbaugh put forth, with strong stats on Michigan's results the day before the Big Ten closed shop.
"What appeared to be going on at Michigan was some sort of team quarantining, and staying way from normal life as they knew it," Skene said. "Guys were staying together, staying away from the public, doing everything they could.
“That’s the context, I believe, in which not just football but all collegiate varsity athletes should have been given the opportunity to get out there and compete. Then if the thing starts running rampant through a roster and you’ve got to shut things down, that’s a different story. But at least you tried."
As we've said before, nobody planned to send rosters of 75-year-olds or physically compromised younger folks out to do battle. Nobody would have been on board with U-M players leading out their typical social lives under these circumstances. But it appeared they were willing to give those up to have a season.
That's a lot of discipline, spread over a lot of teams, and obviously it hasn't been taking place everywhere. There's also the myocarditis factor, the heart inflammation that remains a concern. So there exist reasonable arguments on both sides.
The shut-it-down crowd doesn't consist of all cowering, fetal-position, soy boys that hate football and want to see it destroyed. The #WeWantToPlay or #WeWantToWatch crews aren't all knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, mask-burning cavemen. There exists some intelligent middle ground, and Harbaugh and his team thought they were demonstrating that fact.
"They were taking all the steps they could possibly take to be safe for themselves, and the coaches were taking responsibility by staying away from others they weren’t so familiar with, to protect the team and protect others," Skene said.
“That’s an easy finger to point. Oh, we’re just a selfish bunch of football fans. We don’t care about anybody. We just want to see football.
“I understand it. I don’t agree with it. It’s not just football. It’s all the sports in the fall, men’s and women’s included, that should have been given the opportunity to play.”
They won't be, and that realization comes with emptiness, uncertainty and anger. It's 2016 at Ohio State all over again. You played a strong game, with nothing to show for it.
Cochran embodies the seething anger of any number of players who don't feel as free to speak out, because they'll still be playing for Michigan — when football eventually returns. They did everything they could. They did everything properly.
They got locked out.
Former players such as TheWolverine.com's own Doug Skene isn't pulling any punches, either. He let fly on a podcast here and in an interview for next week's magazine regarding his fired-up thoughts on the perceived injustice of it all.
The Big Ten and the Pac-12 are sitting this one out. Skene never thought he'd be rooting for the SEC and ACC, but he is. He hopes they play, and do so safely, to demonstrate precisely what Michigan players and coaches thought they were underscoring — this can all be done without significant harm to those involved.
Medical experts — some, anyway — disagree, or are at least uncertain enough for two of the Power Five leagues to pull the plug. So be it. Barring another successful trick play by Ohio State head coach Ryan Day (an eight-game season, beginning the first Saturday in January), the Wolverines can kiss football goodbye until the fall of 2021 (or forever, for some).
The discussion with Skene prompted a devil's advocate question. That's a dangerous proposition, given that he's a very large human still salty over the decision, armed with five Big Ten championship rings to make any punch deliver enhanced dents.
Okay, here's what some will say. These guys just want football, and don't care about anyone or anything else. They don't care if people get sick and maybe even die. It's all about the game, without regard to a very real pandemic. What would you say to them?
Skene didn't hesitate, or equivocate.
“I would say that’s absolutely not true," he offered. "This is not about some sort of indifference toward people that could possibly get hurt. I’m going off of the statistics that have been explained, and the protocols that have been put forth by the CDC that Michigan has been following.
“I understand that the risks are out there. There was a young man from Michigan State that said he wasn’t going to play, because he didn’t feel it was safe for his family. Obviously, there is a connectivity there between the family and the young man at Michigan State.
“I think they had someone get severely ill, or even lost someone. That’s terrible. I’m not dismissing any of that."
What he IS saying involves precisely what Jim Harbaugh put forth, with strong stats on Michigan's results the day before the Big Ten closed shop.
"What appeared to be going on at Michigan was some sort of team quarantining, and staying way from normal life as they knew it," Skene said. "Guys were staying together, staying away from the public, doing everything they could.
“That’s the context, I believe, in which not just football but all collegiate varsity athletes should have been given the opportunity to get out there and compete. Then if the thing starts running rampant through a roster and you’ve got to shut things down, that’s a different story. But at least you tried."
As we've said before, nobody planned to send rosters of 75-year-olds or physically compromised younger folks out to do battle. Nobody would have been on board with U-M players leading out their typical social lives under these circumstances. But it appeared they were willing to give those up to have a season.
That's a lot of discipline, spread over a lot of teams, and obviously it hasn't been taking place everywhere. There's also the myocarditis factor, the heart inflammation that remains a concern. So there exist reasonable arguments on both sides.
The shut-it-down crowd doesn't consist of all cowering, fetal-position, soy boys that hate football and want to see it destroyed. The #WeWantToPlay or #WeWantToWatch crews aren't all knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, mask-burning cavemen. There exists some intelligent middle ground, and Harbaugh and his team thought they were demonstrating that fact.
"They were taking all the steps they could possibly take to be safe for themselves, and the coaches were taking responsibility by staying away from others they weren’t so familiar with, to protect the team and protect others," Skene said.
“That’s an easy finger to point. Oh, we’re just a selfish bunch of football fans. We don’t care about anybody. We just want to see football.
“I understand it. I don’t agree with it. It’s not just football. It’s all the sports in the fall, men’s and women’s included, that should have been given the opportunity to play.”
They won't be, and that realization comes with emptiness, uncertainty and anger. It's 2016 at Ohio State all over again. You played a strong game, with nothing to show for it.
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