Paul Finebaum says SEC growing frustrated with player behavior amid COVID-19 spikes
The SEC has lost 4 games already this week — Alabama-LSU, Georgia-Mizzou, Auburn-Mississippi State and Texas A&M-Tennessee — due to outbreaks of COVID-19 in various programs.
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman also won’t coach this week at Florida after he contracted the virus.
On Wednesday’s edition of “Get Up!” on ESPN, SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said there’s a growing frustration in the SEC about player behavior, as it seems players are getting fed up with COVID-19 protocols (via 247Sports):
“It’s a mess. There’s a lot of frustration within the SEC about player behavior,” Finebaum said. “At this point in the season — we’re in mid-November — players are getting tired of following protocols. Halloween was a week and a half ago and some think that may have been the super-spreader.”
Finebaum added that the Alabama-LSU game potentially getting canceled with no makeup date would be a blow to the league’s image:
“The thing about contact tracing is that it doesn’t take much. We’ve seen this many times before,” Finebaum said. “But the interesting thing is that Alabama really doesn’t need to do anything … they’re at least one of the top 2 or 3 teams in the country if not the best. But just think about the Alabama-LSU game being scrubbed. We sat here a year ago talking about that game literally all week. All eyes were on that game. The president was at the game. If that game goes by the wayside, that’s a blow to the image of the SEC.”
Will the SEC be able to get the virus under control moving forward? Or, will we see more games lost during the second half of the season?
Hmmmm…A&M has 2 players positive and a dozen in contact tracing because they were on a plane together. Silly players. Get your stuff together.
Hmmmm…..where did the 2 players who tested positive contract the virus? They didn’t get it on the plane or others would also have it. Were they lazy about the protocols? I don’t know but your excuse doesn’t fly.
It’s not an excuse. I know people who have taken quarantine very seriously and still gotten it. 2 people does not constitute an outbreak. My point is Pawwwwl stating that the league is fed up with player behavior makes it sound like they’re all out partying all the time. I’m sure that’s not the case. Saban and Pittman got it. They’re in higher risk groups. Are they out being reckless? Is the league fed up with coaches’ behavior?
Good point. Btw don’t pay any attention to anything dartha says. His only purpose on this site is to instigate. He’s got little value as a human being.
We’re at the point where we will see deaths start to spiral out of control. Not necessarily COVID deaths. But more like what NYC experienced several months back. The big metro city I live in already has been bringing in people from rural areas. It’s going to get much uglier AGAIN before it gets better.
Agreed, another whole wave of non-essential shutdowns should be on the horizon. Hopefully this time around though people will understand that hoarding toilet paper isn’t the best strategy to fight this.
And where did y’all get your epidemiology credentials? Yeah that’s what I thought… a bunch of internet fear mongering.
Right – after all, there’s no proof Covid is actually a problem.
Only 14K people have died FROM covid or as I’ve called it The Kung Fu flu! Now MANY have died WITH it – even people killed in motorcycle accidents and others who died from heart attacks!! It’s not like the bubonic plague – it’s a FLU! The TOTAL DEATHS for the USA is tracking to be LESS than previous years – how can that be since the “over 250,000 killed by PRESIDENT TRUMP’s failure” is “common knowledge”?? It’s pure bovine excrement and nothing more than the dems’ enhanced efforts to further destroy our Nation!
Seems legit. I commend you for your calm and rational explanation.
I’m going to buy stock in Tylenol FLU since clearly that’s what’s kicking this Covid flu in the behind.
Did you play football when concussions were ignored? Every single thing, which you claimed about COVID-19 was a lie! Do you really think that the Democratic Party has convinced the whole world to fake a killer pandemic to defeat Donald Trump and destroy the USA. Even in the USA, corporations, large business, labor and Wall Street have all taken a pandemic seriously. Nations around the world have also experienced large death counts, and scientists around the world have a cooperative effort to find a treatment and develop a vaccine. EVEN TRUMP HAS SPENT BILLIONS IN A “WARP SPEED” PROGRAM TO SPEED UP DEVELOPMENT, DISTRIBUTION AND DISPENSING A BRAND NEW VACCINE FOR COVID-19. If this a conspiracy by the Democratic Party, then DJT is a Democrat who wanted to defeat himself and Make America Destroyed [Again]. Do your realize how you sound like someone who can’t feed himself or go to the bathroom without an aide to wipe up for him?
I have a question for you: If it’s “a bunch of internet fear mongering, then WHY HAS TRUMP SPENT BILLIONS ON A “WARP SPEED” PROGRAM TO SPEED UP THE DEVELOPMENT, THE DISTRIBUTION AND THE DISPENSING A BRAND NEW VACCINE FOR COVID-19?
All I heard from my SEC brethren is this would be over after the election
Here let me beat the gumpers to it…playing the Alabama-LSU game this year might be a bigger blow to the conference’s image than not playing it.
My you should put up a billboard?
For someone that talks about LSU fans living in the past you sure do bring up a lot from it..
So what have I said about LSU fans living in the past?
You need me to put it on a billboard for you?
Your comment makes no sense. I haven’t criticized any LSU fan about living in the past…
So again what did I say about LSU fans living in the past?
Ok BT I’ll bite, I haven’t lived in Louisiana for a while so I’m not sure what the billboard reference is? In any case I’m acknowledging that if the game were played it would be a blowout and not a good look for the SEC.
You don’t remember the free devin white billboards?
Huh…I did not know that went on.
#FreeBoPelini
It’s just human mental fatigue. I’ve read it in several articles for past couple months. Kind of thought it would kick in after a few months of this last summer.
I wear a mask and try to distance and forgo going out or enclosed places, but I’m almost 50 and more of a homebody by nature- it’s easy for me.
College kids at that age, with all the partying, bars, female eye candy, very hard to ask them to stay indoors all the time and play video games. Football players are human.
Always thought the single week to makeup games was optimistic, but here we are.
Remember this is still 2020- Any ounce of normalcy in anything this year left us long ago.
Concerning COVID lockdowns & all of the other ramifications of this seemingly endless case #’s down then case #’s up…Well it has been quite a year for all of us. College football players being 18 19 20 year olds are just not the type to stay self-isolated forever and remembering my college days…yes the bars were always great gathering places for me and my friends and still are. The bars/parties/ladies surely do not contribute to self-isolation and this is a natural progression in this COVID-time. I just hope that we can have the SEC Championship and send a team to the Playoffs.
85% of new cases are people who RELIGIOUSLY wear a mask! You’re statistically better off to avoid wearing an infection absorber on your face!
That’s beyond ignorant.
I get your point but here is the flip side. Many people who do wear masks wear them wrong. A mask below the nose is useless but I see more times than not. I also know people who never wash their mask which is also unhealthy.
Seeing as how a mask keeps the wearer from potentially spreading the virus but does not keep the wearer from contracting the virus, all you’re doing is making the point that those who aren’t wearing masks are the problem here. Much like herd immunity, it only works if everyone does it.
See above; I don’t know on what you base your false information, but a psychiatrist would surely call it psychosis–a break with reality characterized by the delusions of someone who’s paranoid or schizophrenic.
Teams that have nothing to play for will probably see their players become more lackadaisical concerning Covid protocols.
If the players don’t want to do their part then instead of rescheduling games just count them as losses for the teams with the outbreaks.
How can you know if players are not doing their part? Your like the 5th person I’ve saw say this. Intelligent bunch..
So if one player on Georgia’s team, a non starter, goes out one night and then goes to practice and infects the whole team and they cant play would your narrative be the same? Probably not..
I wouldn’t care. This is a lost season for the Dawgs. I’ve mentally and emotionally checked out.
This is absurd, and is exactly why (sane) UGA fans catch so much crap. Mass punishment isn’t effective; take it from a veteran.
I’m just as sane as anyone else. Until the players see consequences for their actions they will keep doing exactly what they are doing. If Mizzou was handed a loss the players would think twice before doing things they shouldn’t be doing.
Those Halloween parties sure bumped-up the virus #’s.