SI Insider: Ohio State Student Athletes Were Asked to Sign COVID-19 Waiver

Transcript

00:00Well, as players are starting to come back to campus for college football practice, one

00:10thing that came out the last couple of days is that Ohio State's players and their parents

00:16were asked to sign basically a coronavirus risk waiver.

00:21It was called the Buckeye Pledge, but it was basically a waiver saying that they will not

00:27intend to sue the university if any of them come down with the virus.

00:31It's an interesting document there.

00:33My question, I wonder whether any of the coaches or administrators are signing the same pledge.

00:38It seems like what's good for the student athletes could also be good for the coaches.

00:43Basically, what Ohio State's trying to do here is to get everyone to agree to a series

00:49of behavior restraints, so to speak, and try to be careful and be safe and healthy in terms

00:55of social distancing, wearing protective equipment, that sort of thing when they're

00:59away from the football facility.

01:01If college kids, it's not always going to be that easy to do, but the question this

01:07all goes back to is, is it okay to have the unpaid labor come in and take the risk of

01:14being on campus to be part of a team?

01:16We know that young athletes of that age group and demographic probably not likely to be

01:23seriously ill if they do contract the virus, and we have seen several players at several

01:27places test positive once they've returned to campus.

01:30But still, there is some risk involved, and it's interesting Ohio State and certainly

01:34other programs, but we haven't really heard all about, asking players to accept some of

01:40the responsibility if something should go wrong from a pandemic standpoint.