Trump Pressuring Big Ten For Votes (Parts 1 & 2)

The nation’s current president, Donald Trump, contacted the Big Ten Conference Commissioner, Kevin Warren, with “his concerns” over the Conference cancelling its college football season. The Big 10 Conference university presidents did so due to the coronavirus and the impact it would have on student-athletes, staff and fans. Trump doesn’t agree with their decision and is portraying an “alliance” with fans and student-athletes who are either naive or hold survival-of-the-fittest mentalities.

But some believe there is more to the story. Trump could be playing a political game for the upcoming election similar to the one which has already cost Americans more than 858,661 lives with more than 6,000,000 people infected in the United States alone. The numbers continue to climb, but poor handling of the situation, greed, gullibility or ignorance, and a lack of a sure treatment or vaccine has not stopped individuals from wanting the escapism of sports.

The hot bed for the virus happens to be the home of the Big Ten. The Big Ten Conference includes the Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Purdue University, Indiana University, Michigan State, Penn State, Ohio State, Rutgers University, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Northwestern. Those states comprise 1,282,488 amount of those infected with the virus despite being some of the least populous states in the country. That’s 21% of cases reported in the country. Those same states happen to be “Trump Country” and five are swing vote states.

Image Credit: CNN

Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Michigan and Nebraska are swing states. Trump won those states, but Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, is narrowly winning in 4 of those 6 states.

Source: MSNBC

But trust, there are plenty of smart fish out there who aren’t falling for the okey-dokey.

And they are right. There are more important issues the “President of the United States” should be concerned with. One of them is defeating the invisible enemy known as coronavirus. He should not be focused on making sure college football is being played. No, a true “President of the United States” would want to ensure that his constituents are safe, secure and healthy. Yet, Trump is more concerned about the economy and sealing his election fate than any of those three issues.

Trump has failed to protect the safety and security of all of his citizens in the United States by feeding racism and fear to mainstream America. Further, he has tried to gut the ACA that was designed to protect Americans’ health. Or, Trump lied about what protections he was signing an executive order to provide that was already provided by ACA. But the most important, Trump has failed in observing science and taking the necessary steps like wearing masks, shutting down the economy temporarily, etc. to ensure financial security for corporations and his cronies instead of defeating coronavirus. The defeat of the virus would have allowed college football to be played. Even if he does convince the Big Ten Conference to play later this fall, the delay in play lies with his administration.

The Big 10 and Pac-12 had been brave enough to allow reason to rule over greed. Both of those conferences cared enough about their student-athletes to heed the warnings of professionals who actually study this enemy instead of considering it the “flu.” The Ivy League was the first conference to determine it was too risky. No disrespect to the other conferences, but those of are of the brightest minds in the United States. It would be prudent to continue to to their wisdom. It would be much easier and more intelligent than having to apologize to a student-athlete’s family for that’s student-athlete’s death or career-ending disability caused by the virus. We know Trump total disregard of sound, scientific reasoning is a bit scary unless you agree with this:

Source: The Telegraph

Which undoubtedly led both the CDC and Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of Lysol to address his supposedly sarcastic comments with the following tweets:

Image Credit: W.A.R. Agency

Despite Trump’s comment above being “sarcastic,” sarcasm is not an appropriate manner to address a nation that is suffering emotionally, physically and financially from a pandemic. The fact that the sarcasm was missed is an interesting fact. Actually, there are several interesting facts that lie within this fact pattern. One being PAC 12 was not on Trump’s radar via tweet or otherwise. PAC 12 is heavily Democrat area. Interesting enough, college football is made up of 49% of Black student-athletes and 37% of White student-athletes. While the Black population in those states are Ohio 12% , Nebraska 4% and Iowa just 2%. Another interesting fact is Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio State voted to have college football this fall. All three schools reside within swing states that favored Trump in 2016, and all three states have seen upticks in the virus since resuming “economic and scholastic” activities as requested by President Trump.

The experience for a football student-athlete should go beyond just football. It should include interaction with other students, faculty and staff from various disciplines, cultures and sub-cultures. If the campus is not safe to mingle in this manner, then no students including student-athletes should be allowed onto that campus. And if it is not safe for students and staff, then it is not safe to play college football.

Let’s take that one more step further. Trump has numerously in the past told athletes to shut up about social injustices which have killed or injured the likes of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, and Jacob Blake. The excuse is always the same tired explanation that they had it coming because they broke the law in some form or another. Despite judgment is suppose to be handed down in a court of law, Trump’s stance is more than likely to put most of those college football players at risk. And yet, he thinks they should play as it would be good for the country. What about their social protections let along the health risks they are being asked to assume?

Student-athletes should mean more than dollar bills and cheap thrills for insatiable fans who want to get drunk and tailgate. Their lives need to mean more than bonuses and bragging rights of universities and their athletic department staff. Their lives are more important than what they could eventually buy their parents if they make to the NFL. And their lives are definitely more important than to being left to the reckless whim of an Administration without a plan for the current pandemic.Student-athletes should mean more than dollar bills and cheap thrills for insatiable fans who want to get drunk and tailgate. Their lives need to mean more than bonuses and bragging rights of universities and their athletic department staff. Their lives are more important than what they could eventually buy their parents if they make to the NFL. And their lives are definitely more important than to being left to the reckless whim of an Administration without a plan for the current pandemic.

So, go ahead and re-vote Big Ten. But remember your various universities’ missions and values, then stand your ground. Here’s to hoping you don’t let money change you.

Source: The O’Jays