CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Milo Eifler You have many questions about whether it is safe to play football during the coronavirus pandemic.
And it doesn’t seem like anyone in the NCAA or the University of Illinois can answer all of those questions for the senior linebacker.
When asked if he would feel comfortable starting the 2020 season with current safety protocols, Eifler replied with a question of his own.
“Do we have a vaccine?” Eifler asked with a smile. “I don’t know. The football player in me wants to put pads on right now. When I left the house to go to the grocery store, I know everyone has been a little scared about ‘What if I go to eat with my friend? Friday at an outdoor restaurant? You want to do those things but in the back of your head you’re like ‘Dang, I don’t know. Is that correct?’ “
The projected starting linebacker may consider taking a pass in the 2020 season if the plans were carried out without a vaccine available and distributed.
“I don’t know. So I started this and [an Illinois athletics spokesperson] he asked me if I wanted to speak [to media] today and I said, ‘Hell yeah,’ “said Eifler.” What if there was a vaccine? Of course, [if there was a vaccine] All college football players would say, “Put me on right now.” On the back of your head, you say: ‘There is no vaccine, there is no way to do it, there is quarantine and after the Quarantine, I guess I’m fine, so I won’t get the virus again. But then there are long-term effects. There’s always this back and forth, you know what I say? From the bottom of my heart, I love soccer. I want to play with my boys … it all comes from an athlete. But then, coming from the personal side, there are questions like, ‘What if I catch him and I can’t go see my parents anymore?’ That’s where I am now. “
A single tweet expressing concern about playing soccer during a current coronavirus pandemic has caused concern in the athletics department at the University of Illinois.
A few hours before his scheduled Zoom video conference with the local media, Illinois linebacker Eifler He publicly posted a tweet wondering why college administrators were still insisting that the 2020 college football season start on time.
“I understand that people want to see us play this season, but really how can a team full of more than 100 student athletes fully function during a pandemic,” Eifler said on Twitter. Trust me, my teammates and I want to play. But schools across the country are showing evident disregard for student athletes. “
Eifler’s tweet was retweeted and commented on by several Illini teammates on Wednesday afternoon.
In an email sent by the University of Illinois athletic communication department, Eifler’s Zoom conference with local media was postponed “until a later date.”
“We are postponing Milo Eifler’s Zoom interview until a later date,” an Illinois athletics spokesman wrote in the mass email to the media. “We are taking this time to learn about Milo’s concerns expressed on Twitter.”
The “later date” became a few hours later when Eifler spoke to local media for almost an hour about his concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and what protocols can be established to make him comfortable playing this upcoming college football. 2020. season. Eifler said he spoke to the Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman and soccer coach Lovie Smith over the phone after sending his tweet, but before speaking to local media on Wednesday afternoon.
Eifler’s concern about the COVID-19 pandemic follows a computer science professor at the University of Illinois who provides some data for CBS Sports on infection rates and disease-related mortality rates.
Illinois teacher Dr. Sheldon Jacobson He told CBS Sports that he expects an “infection rate of 30 to 50 percent for the approximately 13,000 players competing on FBS this season.” According to his research, he also projects three to seven deaths among those players or support staff members due to the virus.
“Some of them could end up in the hospital, and you will have a small number that could die,” Jacobson told the CBS Sports reporter. Dennis Dodd. “I don’t want to sweeten it for you. I just want to give you the facts … If everyone comes together under normal circumstances, we’ll probably see that kind of result.”
Eifler, a transfer from Washington, had 12 starts in 13 games last season for the Illini defense. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker ended the 2020 season with 69 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, a broken pass and a fumble recovery. Eifler, originally from Berkeley, California, had a sack in front of his local fans on the game’s first defensive move in the 2019 Redbox Bowl loss to California.
