USA TODAY: Dabo has 'zero doubt' football will start on time

[MplsGopher]

Dabo is a dork and an idiot. Good football coach though.

Is he?

He's a winning coach, that's for sure.

And he's a very rich man, that's for sure. One of the poorest, least educated states in the nation. As a sports coach, at the state's public ag school, he makes over $9million per year.


Clemson went from 43-32 in ACC games under Tommy Bowden over 1999-2008 seasons, to 13-8 in Dabo's first three years (2008-2010), then a big step change over 2011-2014 going 26-6, and then 2015-2019 have gone 34-2 with two national titles and four natty game appearances.


Must be one hell of a coach, right?

Hint: watch "The Scheme" on HBO. That's basketball, of course, but is it really that difficult to see how Dabo accomplished what he did at a nothing school like Clemson? That would be like doing it at NC State or Mississippi State.

 

[fair]

Hey, I want football back as much as the next guy.

But I'm realistic enough to understand that, in the grand scheme of things, there are a lot more important things going on than whether a football game is played in August or September.

The decision on whether to play or not play will not be made by coaches, fans, bookies or TV executives. It will be made by medical personnel.

Because - if doctors like Fauci or Birx say they cannot recommend that games resume - there is not going to be football.

Now, if I had to bet my own money, I will bet that there will be games this fall - but most likely with no fans in the stands. And I would not be surprised to see the college football season start a few weeks later with a conference-games-only schedule.

However - if there is a second wave of infections this fall, then all bets are off.

One thing I've been wondering- if they do start playing with no fans, and one of the thousands of players/staff in D1 tests positive, does it all just get shut down again? Seems like it'll be a very delicate situation.

 

[MplsGopher]

One thing I've been wondering- if they do start playing with no fans, and one of the thousands of players/staff in D1 tests positive, does it all just get shut down again? Seems like it'll be a very delicate situation.

If you're testing daily, then you know as soon as a player has it. There is no such period where the player was shedding virus without knowing it.

Therefore, you wouldn't have to shut down anything. You just quarantine that player until he recovers and is no longer shedding virus.

 

[Just Gopher It!!]

When this pandemic started, zero people had immunity, which is just a chance to fight it off with both innate and then develop acquired immunity. We have had less than 1% of our people with this disease. 99% have not had enough of a dose to acquire the disease. We are trying to contain it to that 1%. Do you think the other 99% are safe if we still have asymptomatic carriers wandering around a stadium, or 300 stadiums spreading this disease en masse? We could be near zero in the fall with cases and then have a rebound, a second wave that makes the first wave look like a picnic if we go back to business as usual. We don't know what business as usual means. We do not know what the new normal looks like. It is not that difficult to do a thought exercise on this problem that is relevant to what our next steps should be. I doubt life looks anything like it was before. But, it is your thought exercise and mine to do. How do we go about the new normal? If the result is packed football stadiums in your mind, then I recommend that you go back and rethink your next steps in life. That is my suggestion to you.

How do you return to work? How do you socialize? How do you secure goods without passing on the infection? How do I protect my family, friends, countrymen? How do I restructure my job for the new service, new product, and new culture?

Friends, you are all going to determine what August looks like.

Good post. Well stated and I think we all are, rightfully so IMO, freaked out by what both our immediate and long-term features will consist of. I live oi NYC and will be very surprised if things go back to anything close to what they were ptr- virus. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[fair]

If you're testing daily, then you know as soon as a player has it. There is no such period where the player was shedding virus without knowing it.

Therefore, you wouldn't have to shut down anything. You just quarantine that player until he recovers and is no longer shedding virus.

It's hard to say where testing capabilities will be come August, but do you really think they'll have the ability to shell out daily tests for these guys?

 

[MplsGopher]

It's hard to say where testing capabilities will be come August, but do you really think they'll have the ability to shell out daily tests for these guys?

They just approved a desktop tester that can find a positive in 5mins, and clear a sample in 13mins.

Buy one for every player, every staff member. Daily test required to get in the door at the facility each morning.

 

[fmlizard]

I'm confident that testing can advance to the point where football players feel quite safe from coronavirus while practicing and playing in games.

Like others have said in some threads, the answer for the NCAA and all the other sports leagues might not be tests, but waivers. It's nearly impossible to control the liability risk among all players and team personnel, let alone a stadium of fans.

Coming soon to your season ticket package - a virus waiver.

 

[hungan1]

Is Darbo getting pressure from boosters that pay his exorbitant salary? I think we are in uncharted territory bigger than football.

Do we want to risk the spread of a second wave by opening up organized sports too soon? Are we going to risk the lives of players. coaches, staff, and maybe if live attendance are permitted the lives of fans? We have too many unknowns. Let's wait on a decision.

We are now on the coronavirus clock and not the other way around.

Not sure if this is an unfounded story or not. So many of them out there. KARE 11 does a nice job of straightening these out nightly as to true and false. With this particular disease, some medical experts believe we may have a 2nd wave to this current situation. Hope it isn't true as Trump has eliminated two boards that I'm aware of that helps deal with this sort of thing. If nothing else he needs to listen to the doctors and get these boards back up and running again.

Trying not to get anyone upset about the boards, but we've fallen behind in this category. We need to work with the doctors from other countries.

'Sorry to be off topic - but this is worth reading about.

The sad truth is the US disbanded the team of US (and International Experts) experts in 2018 that monitor and track down pathogens and train doctors. These are a part of the group of international experts that helped stop the SARS and MERS from becoming a major pandemic.

I am sorry. This is very tragic and unfortunate. These auxiliary arms of government that help protect the public health from major medical threats should never be politicized and remain independent.

There differences of opinion at what exactly happen. Would it have made a huge difference if the Pandemic Team were still around? I would think so. Think of all the lives that will be lost based on one key decision. Think of the hundreds of trillions of dollars lost and an economy that in near collapse all undone by tiny viruses. A decision that is incompetent at best. They need to put trust in the men of science who understood the real perils of not monitoring and controlling all the world's potential virulent threats.

ABOVETHELAW.COM -GOVERNMENT

Donald Trump Didn’t Disband Pandemic Team, He Did Far Worse
How Ford v. Ferrari can explain Trump's incompetence.
By JOE PATRICE Mar 17, 2020 at 12:47 PM

When we started hearing that the Trump administration sowed the seeds for the lackluster response to this outbreak by firing the nation’s whole pandemic preparedness team a few years ago, it was genuinely disturbing how unsurprising it was.

But former administration officials are now pushing back against the report that Trump recklessly fired the response team of experts by claiming… he didn’t dissolve the team at all. An odd flex given that Donald Trump already admitted that he fired everyone in the office, explaining that he didn’t want people on the payroll when there wasn’t an active threat and “when we need them, we can get them back very quickly.”

And while being comically contradicted by Trump himself should end the inquiry, the managerial lackeys who actually staked their careers on this debacle are taking to the press to try and defend their crumbling professional reputations.

Tim Morrison, a former NSC official, wrote to the Washington Post claiming, “No, the White House didn’t ‘dissolve’ its pandemic response office. I was there.” It’s an editorial earning a lot of plaudits from John Bolton, Morrison’s former boss. who is also deeply implicated in this move since he oversaw the decision. Right-wing Twitter is sending it around in… I don’t know… some kind of weird attempt to claim that whatever Trump did with the team isn’t why the response has been so badly botched?

It’s also an editorial that seems to woefully misunderstand both “pandemics” and “preparedness.”

Morrison’s claim is that he ran the successor organization to the pandemic preparedness group, a move that cut most of the minds behind the original, but…
One such move at the NSC was to create the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate, which was the result of consolidating three directorates into one, given the obvious overlap between arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense. It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented. If anything, the combined directorate was stronger because related expertise could be commingled.

This is where we can all take a lesson from Ford v. Ferrari.

When you take a highly specialized racing unit and say, “we’re making changes, firing your people, and putting you under the domestic sedan unit,” well, you end up losing Le Mans.

Morrison and Bolton are publicly arguing that they aren’t responsible for dismantling a highly praised pandemic team because they buried its mission under the auspices of an arms control and bioterror unit. Except those are security threats predicated upon predicting and remediating human state and non-state actors. Where, exactly, does a group born out of influenza responses fit? Because when your leadership is a bioterrorism hammer, everything becomes a nail. This is how you end up with 800 scenarios for a nerve gas attack on public transit and 0 scenarios for dealing with an asymptomatic pneumoniatic flu.

Like the revolving door corporate hacks that they are, the administration made its cuts about “efficiency” rather than “results” and somehow has the gall to pretend they were right when the whole operation crashes around them. Diseases might come from bioterrorism, but they’re far more likely to come from the serendipity of mutation. If some entity were planning a bioterror attack, it would focus on agents that are highly lethal and, necessarily, not highly contagious — diseases can’t survive when they kill the host. This is precisely why an organization charged with gameplanning terrorist attacks is ill-suited to deal with traditional pandemics. The whole frame of reference is wrong.

Dissolving the team would have been bad, but what the administration actually did was far worse. What they actually did was slit the throat of America’s preparedness for an outbreak like this while convincing themselves they still had a plan. Senior administration officials honestly believed they had this covered by their cut-rate bioterror team. The whole operation revolves around the idea that there’s someone to attack, someone to blame, someone to fire. But there’s no villain here and they can’t seem to grasp what to do about that.

If only they had some sort of “team” charged with “preparing” for something like this…

Who is ultimately responsible?
---------------------------------------------------------------
No, the White House didn’t ‘dissolve’ its pandemic response office. I was there. [Washington Post]
Trump disbanded NSC pandemic unit that experts had praised [AP]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Donald Trump Didn't Disband Pandemic Team, He Did Far Worse - Above the Law

How Ford v. Ferrari can explain Trump's incompetence.

abovethelaw.com

 

[#2Gopher]

I was hoping to learn something, but all I got from that is you don’t like Trump or Pence. I’m sure all of those things you mentioned can be, and probably are being accomplished without the “boards” you speak of.

Sorry it came off wrong. I lean Democrat as to social issues etc. I got mad at Obama and Clinton as well. I'll get more information. Meanwhile let me just say that Pence isn't the one who should be in charge as to what to do. Do you hire a someone who is the coach of the rowing team to take over as the next basketball coach? No you hire someone who has expertise in the area of basketball. Pence has his expertise that he is good at. He's not an expert in the area of what we're dealing with. Follow? Why have people on these committees, boards, task force that know nothing about what is going on? They don't know what questions to ask, what to do, and so forth. We need a leader who knows how to lead with a background of viruses etc.

I just believe in solid leadership in a particular area that people are good at.

Edit: Hungman1 just posted what I was getting at.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

And, knowing that we don't know anything about the real numbers, your going to do what with that information?

Math and logic combined with the testing that is occurring today easily suggests that this just didn't spread to every corner of the country in the last 3 weeks. It's impossible to keep everyone locked down until it disappears. We are way beyond that point.

Social distancing at the beginning is the right move to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, while we learn more about the disease. Doing it long term is impractical and will create much bigger issues. We have to resume normal life, which include sports. I believe that will begin to happen in May.

 

[PitinoFan]

Math and logic combined with the testing that is occurring today easily suggests that this just didn't spread to every corner of the country in the last 3 weeks. It's impossible to keep everyone locked down until it disappears. We are way beyond that point.

Social distancing at the beginning is the right move to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, while we learn more about the disease. Doing it long term is impractical and will create much bigger issues. We have to resume normal life, which include sports. I believe that will begin to happen in May.

Everything you just wrote is what I’ve been thinking. I don’t know whether it will happen at the beginning of May, but there will be a period of time without handshakes, with six feet of distancing, as many people as possible working from home, grocery stores wiping things down, etc. This was already happening before our stay at home order went into effect, and will continue to happen for quite some time. The bars/restaurants issue is tricky.

 

[Deleted_User]

Math and logic combined with the testing that is occurring today easily suggests that this just didn't spread to every corner of the country in the last 3 weeks. It's impossible to keep everyone locked down until it disappears. We are way beyond that point.

Social distancing at the beginning is the right move to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, while we learn more about the disease. Doing it long term is impractical and will create much bigger issues. We have to resume normal life, which include sports. I believe that will begin to happen in May.

You do realize I don't disagree with the gist of your argument, except that a football stadium is possibly the worst example of how the social and economic fabric of the nation should proceed during the remainder of the pandemic and how most of life should proceed. Football is not integral for the survival and continuation of the nation, hate to break it to you.

I want football. I love football. I love the Gophers. But, this is a pandemic. Worldwide epidemic. And, what do you propose we do? Pack the stadium and cheer for victory like nothing happened or could happen? Just say it. It is okay to say it. I - W A N T - F O O T B A L L.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

You do realize I don't disagree with the gist of your argument, except that a football stadium is possibly the worst example of how the social and economic fabric of the nation should proceed during the remainder of the pandemic and how most of life should proceed. Football is not integral for the survival and continuation of the nation, hate to break it to you.

I want football. I love football. I love the Gophers. But, this is a pandemic. Worldwide epidemic. And, what do you propose we do? Pack the stadium and cheer for victory like nothing happened or could happen? Just say it. It is okay to say it. I - W A N T - F O O T B A L L.

It's not just about football, it's about all sports, at all levels. The economy is integral for the survival and continuation of the nation.

The longer sports are suspended, you're destroying hotels, bars, restaurants, travel, arenas, cable companies, advertising, sports media, and all workers that are associated with these businesses.

 

[hungan1]

Captain obvious here. There isn't a single person here in GH that does not miss sports or isn't affected by its absence.

Things that keeps us grounded - the family & friends, the church, and sports. We need human to human personal interaction. We don't want to shut these down.

But, we have to be patient and do our own part to keep the virus from spreading. ?????

 

[Deleted_User]

It's not just about football, it's about all sports, at all levels. The economy is integral for the survival and continuation of the nation.

The longer sports are suspended, you're destroying hotels, bars, restaurants, travel, arenas, cable companies, advertising, sports media, and all workers that are associated with these businesses.

I getcha. I want to return to normal quickly too. It will be different and some businesses will not survive.

 

[PhillyGopher]

Indeed, why ever set foot inside the state of SC?

Unless you're going to the male stripper competition, like Magic Mike.

Indeed, why ever set foot inside the state of MN?

Unless you're going to the Mall of America.​

Moron!

 

[#2Gopher]

Captain obvious here. There isn't a single person here in GH that does not miss sports or isn't affected by its absence.

Things that keeps us grounded - the family & friends, the church, and sports. We need human to human personal interaction. We don't want to shut these down.

But, we have to be patient and do our own part to keep the virus from spreading. ?????

So until all the people who are not following the rules decide to wise up, the problem will continue to spread.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Captain obvious here. There isn't a single person here in GH that does not miss sports or isn't affected by its absence.

Things that keeps us grounded - the family & friends, the church, and sports. We need human to human personal interaction. We don't want to shut these down.

But, we have to be patient and do our own part to keep the virus from spreading. ?????

Captain obvious here. There isn't a single person here in GH that does not miss sports or isn't affected by its absence.

Things that keeps us grounded - the family & friends, the church, and sports. We need human to human personal interaction. We don't want to shut these down.

But, we have to be patient and do our own part to keep the virus from spreading. ?????

My hierarchy of needs starts with football...

 

[#2Gopher]

As we were late in dealing with this, we're going to be late as to being over this. Quote today I saw. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease specialist, warned in early 2017 that a “surprise outbreak” would occur during the Trump administration, and he said that more needed to be done to prepare for a pandemic.

 

[MplsGopher]

Math and logic combined with the testing that is occurring today easily suggests that this just didn't spread to every corner of the country in the last 3 weeks.

No, you have not proven this pet hypothesis of yours.

It‘s easily logical, mathematical, and reasonable that random motions of particle in a box quickly spread to every corner of the box.

 

[WriterGoph]

Kind of a prick move, Dabo.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/clemsons-dabo-swinney-reportedly-traveled-via-private-plane-to-vacation-during-covid-19-pandemic/ar-BB12c9lO

 

[hello-world]

It's not just about football, it's about all sports, at all levels. The economy is integral for the survival and continuation of the nation.

The longer sports are suspended, you're destroying hotels, bars, restaurants, travel, arenas, cable companies, advertising, sports media, and all workers that are associated with these businesses.

Things aren't just going to go back to the way they were when some official waves a wand. It's going to take a lot of time. People are losing their jobs in droves and a lot of those jobs aren't coming back. People aren't going to feel safe traveling and going to large gatherings for awhile.

The things that were first to go are going to be the last to recover. Hospitality, live entertainment, malls, etc. are in for a protracted downturn. It wouldn't surprise me if they play next season (I hope they do) but it probably shouldn't surprise you if they don't.

 

[Just Gopher It!!]

Kind of a prick move, Dabo.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/clemsons-dabo-swinney-reportedly-traveled-via-private-plane-to-vacation-during-covid-19-pandemic/ar-BB12c9lO

Tone deaf

A little Dab is a hella of a ball coach, not sure what else he may have to offer - goes back to my original premise, Fleck sees the big picture and communicates that well.

 

[Just Gopher It!!]

Things aren't just going to go back to the way they were when some official waves a wand. It's going to take a lot of time. People are losing their jobs in droves and a lot of those jobs aren't coming back. People aren't going to feel safe traveling and going to large gatherings for awhile.

The things that were first to go are going to be the last to recover. Hospitality, live entertainment, malls, etc. are in for a protracted downturn. It wouldn't surprise me if they play next season (I hope they do) but it probably shouldn't surprise you if they don't.

Bingo.

Who the heck wants to get on a plane anytime soon? Except if you were going to see a close relative passing - would be my only exception at this point.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

As we were late in dealing with this, we're going to be late as to being over this. Quote today I saw. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease specialist, warned in early 2017 that a “surprise outbreak” would occur during the Trump administration, and he said that more needed to be done to prepare for a pandemic.

That doctor is probably a communist...

After Minneapolis closed beaches, Minnesota GOP chair accuses Democrats of ‘extreme communist control’

In a Friday post on her Twitter account, the chairwoman of the Minnesota Republican Party accused Democrats of using the coronavirus pandemic as an “excuse for extreme communist control.&#822…

www.twincities.com

/s

 

[fmlizard]

As we were late in dealing with this, we're going to be late as to being over this. Quote today I saw. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease specialist, warned in early 2017 that a “surprise outbreak” would occur during the Trump administration, and he said that more needed to be done to prepare for a pandemic.

To be fair, Fauci's been in his current role since 1984. I'm sure he warned Reagan, HW Bush, Clinton, W Bush, Obama, and now Trump of a surprise outbreak many times. None really did much to tangibly boost national readiness. Clinton established the inadequately supplied National Stockpile in 1999. The current administration dragged their feet for 2 crucial months once there was a threat but all administrations have neglected pandemic prep.

 

[BleedGopher]

per the Washington Post:

In China, as coronavirus cases started to drop and everyday life appeared to stabilize, the Chinese Basketball Association targeted an April 15 return. Government restrictions pushed the date back to early May. This week, as cases started to rise again, the league announced an indefinite pause.

Nippon Professional Baseball, Japan’s top league, could serve as a cautionary tale for Major League Baseball. With the number of new cases on the way down, NPB officials began preparing for a delayed start to the 2020 season, pushing its scheduled Opening Day from March 20 to April 24. Teams began playing exhibition games in empty stadiums.

However, on March 26, three Hanshin Tigers, including star pitcher Shintaro Fujinami, tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press. The team responded by canceling its scheduled exhibition games, ordering players and staff to self-quarantine for 14 days and disinfecting its home stadium.
AD

NPB still planned to open the regular season April 24, but as Japan’s coronavirus outbreak worsened, that became untenable. On Friday, league officials announced an indefinite extension to its delayed start.

U.S. experts said opening stadiums in this country would be among the last stages of lifting pandemic-related restrictions. The first step would be letting people go back to work, with social distancing still in place. Travel restrictions would thaw. Only after those changes could authorities consider allowing stadiums to open.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/04/04/how-long-until-sports-can-return-you-might-not-like-answer/

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

per the Wall Street Journal:

Amy Huchthausen, commissioner of America East Conference, said that she’s already noted small shifts in her own life that foreshadow larger ones in society. She notices the nearest person on the sidewalk when she’s outside now. That sense of heightened attention figures to be common in crowded stadiums.

“I think we’re naive to think that’s not going to persist in a long-term way even when we’re past the virus and past the pandemic,” she said. “I have a hard time believing that once an order is lifted, people are just going to flock to go back to a 50,000-seat or 100,000-seat stadium like they did before.”

That would render plans for near-term comebacks as useless as a face mask made of tissue paper. The basketball and soccer leagues in China, where the virus appeared to be dissipating under strict controls, hoped to return to action this month in empty venues. They quickly abandoned those hopes. South Korea canceled the rest of its basketball season. Japan has postponed baseball’s opening day—twice.

Players and coaches are reluctant to rush back anyway. Not only do they balk at the prospect of playing in empty stadiums, but they also understand that the globetrotting nature of their jobs is a recipe for constant exposure.

The Big Question for Sports: When Will You Feel Safe Around 20,000 Strangers Again?

President Trump wants sports back soon. But fans might not be ready.

www.wsj.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[Plato]

It has been said over and over and all but the Fox News brain dead agree that this administration because the president did not want the pandemic to happen, magical thinking, here and many of his appointees were chosen for loyalty rather than competence and putting Kushner in the mix completely wasted weeks to months in developing an accurate, fast and widely available test for the virus. Charite' Hospital in Berlin developed one in January and offered it to the US and the CDC and FDA refused.
In the absence of wide spread testing for the virus and for antibodies to the virus which would indicate immunity it is not safe to risk the health and indeed lives of the citizens to discontinue social isolation until that data are available
And that includes football.
Clemson is a decent academic school as judged by their admission ACT scores.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

per the Washington Post:

In China, as coronavirus cases started to drop and everyday life appeared to stabilize, the Chinese Basketball Association targeted an April 15 return. Government restrictions pushed the date back to early May. This week, as cases started to rise again, the league announced an indefinite pause.

Nippon Professional Baseball, Japan’s top league, could serve as a cautionary tale for Major League Baseball. With the number of new cases on the way down, NPB officials began preparing for a delayed start to the 2020 season, pushing its scheduled Opening Day from March 20 to April 24. Teams began playing exhibition games in empty stadiums.

However, on March 26, three Hanshin Tigers, including star pitcher Shintaro Fujinami, tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press. The team responded by canceling its scheduled exhibition games, ordering players and staff to self-quarantine for 14 days and disinfecting its home stadium.
AD

NPB still planned to open the regular season April 24, but as Japan’s coronavirus outbreak worsened, that became untenable. On Friday, league officials announced an indefinite extension to its delayed start.

U.S. experts said opening stadiums in this country would be among the last stages of lifting pandemic-related restrictions. The first step would be letting people go back to work, with social distancing still in place. Travel restrictions would thaw. Only after those changes could authorities consider allowing stadiums to open.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/04/04/how-long-until-sports-can-return-you-might-not-like-answer/

Go Gophers!!

I think there's plenty of reason to be skeptical out of any news out of China. They have a history of even not telling different parts of their own government the truth... let alone the outside world.

This is the same country that at one point officials in Wuhan wanted to take time to 'teach' the locals how to properly thank Xi...