ragtimejoe1 said:
Do you think the liability waiver is a huge issue (I do)? I would think that if the liability waiver is absolved, then the student athlete also bears some responsibility. For example, if Joe Blow is out partying or not following guidelines and gets COVID. His "adventures" are clearly documented and the testing demonstrates that he most likely contracted COVID while not following social distancing. He then brings COVID to practice and John Doe get very ill (or even dies). John Doe or his family sue the university and the university sues Joe Blow.
The possibilities are mind boggling. The only logical solution is a liability waiver to protect everyone.
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill here? The rest of their requests didn't seem too ridiculous.
The liability piece is a tough one to work around. I agree w/you that, in general, the requests by student-athletes are pretty non-ridiculous. The problem is the model that everybody is operating under. Unless we get back to some form of competitive cooperation or cooperative competition we are stuck with an adversarial model where in order for your side to win the other side must lose. The problem there is that in that type of model you end up in relationships with losers...or become a loser yourself. We have to figure out how to "win" when we lose. This is not just true in NCAA/athlete/university relationships...it's true in governments, businesses and personal relationships. In so many aspects we have slid into a model where, if the way forward is determined by your opponent, even if it is towards a place you want to be, that gets defined as the opposite of progress. In the case of athletes and college conferences, sometimes what is in the interest of the institution is not completely in the best interest of the athlete and vice versa. However, the institution without the athlete or the athlete without the institution is pretty meaningless so compromises must be made in order that a system would exist wherein both can exist. Look at the conversation surrounding the hot button issues today....everybody wants the same things...decrease COVID effects, decrease racial animosity, and so on...but if your political opponent sets forth on a path that would objectively be a good thing...you are generally forced to fight good direction since it came from your "enemy". When it works, both sides acknowledge that in order to move forward, some concession must be made to the side that you are trying to cooperate with. The athletes and the institutions benefit from each other.
