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After spending much of the summer in a safe, contained environment on campus, many Syracuse football players are worried. 

Early in training camp, they sat out multiple practices to address health concerns associated with playing this season. Chief among them was the idea of traveling to campuses where COVID-19 is more prevalent than in central New York and where it’s unclear how well their opponents are protected and handling the virus. 

On Aug. 13, defensive lineman Josh Black said it’s the “biggest concern.” Defensive back Trill Williams didn’t rule out potentially sitting out a game if the Orange felt their opponent’s protocol was insufficient.

SU’s tour up and down the east coast begins in two weeks in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on a campus that recently reported a 31.3% COVID-19 positivity rate. If the season persists through the pandemic, Syracuse will make three additional trips to hot states on New York’s travel advisory: South Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana. Athletes are right to be concerned — these road trips have the potential to put the whole Syracuse community at risk. 

“(The players’) safety depends a lot on what North Carolina and what the other teams are doing, and if there’s going to be a case on the other teams, which is highly likely given the transmission dynamics of the schools with the teams at risk,” David Larsen, an environmental epidemiologist and SU professor, told The Daily Orange.

“My primary concern is the Syracuse players bringing it back to our campus, which I think would be pretty probable,” he said. 

The seemingly obvious risks of traveling may be overstated. Transmission levels in transit have been low, and hotels are generally safe, Larsen said. SU head coach Dino Babers said the traveling protocols emphasize staying as a group, limiting contact with the outside world and getting in and out as quickly as possible. No Magic City, no sneaking girls into the hotel. 

Babers has compared the team’s traveling guidelines to a “contained bubble,” similar to that of the NBA. Larsen said it’s possible to create such an environment, as long as everyone involved is diligent in insulating themselves within the bubble. 

Larsen is less concerned about a player contracting COVID-19 on an airplane or in a hotel than he is with what happens on the field. Players can’t socially distance or wear masks, and face shield technology hasn’t caught on in college football yet. 

“The amount of tests that they’re doing is where my confidence lies, and I would hope that with efficient testing, two, three times a week from each school, that we can prevent anything bad from happening when we get down there,” junior safety Andre Cisco said. 

The Atlantic Coast Conference will test athletes three times per week during the season, but issues remain, Larsen said. A recent Johns Hopkins study found a high rate of false negative results for pre-symptomatic infected people. Testing is crucial and can help identify cases, but perhaps not early enough. Even as athletes are required to test negative within three days of a game, a false negative would allow competitors to play with COVID-19, putting everyone involved at risk. 

It’s a numbers game, Larsen said, and the probability of an athlete playing while being infectious is higher in a place with wide community spread, like Chapel Hill. The possibility of an SU athlete contracting the virus at an away game or a visiting player bringing it to Syracuse is real. 

Liberty is scheduled to come to Syracuse on Oct. 17. The football program, which recently announced it will follow the ACC’s safety measures, previously tested only symptomatic athletes and staffers, which Director of Athletics John Wildhack called “deeply troubling.” Inviting any heightened risk like that into the community would be irresponsible. 

Syracuse Athletics has been taking the risks seriously. Strict health guidelines drove down cases during training camp. Unlike several other schools, SU never had to pause voluntary workouts or camp because of case clusters. As a whole, the university’s 10 active cases in central New York and less than 1% positivity rate of COVID-19 on campus should be a negligible concern, especially compared to that of other schools. 

But if there’s one thing this virus has taught us, it’s that sometimes it doesn’t matter how careful you are. The “Stay Safe Pledge,” which includes restricting students from traveling outside central New York, is designed to keep Syracuse’s community safe. Of course, for football, and all college sports, to happen, athletes will be crossing state lines. 

There are conversations to be had about the morality of placing athletes above citizens in regards to them being essential workers. Those ideas become even more existential when framed around amateurism.

Regardless, SU football has valid concerns about traveling to away games, particularly in areas with rampant community spread. With the non-zero possibility that a player catches COVID-19, and infects students or faculty when they return to campus, maybe the rest of us should be, too.

Published on August 30, 2020 at 8:54 pm