Western Pennsylvania's trusted news source
Pitt players join national plea to play football this fall | TribLIVE.com
Penn State

Pitt players join national plea to play football this fall

Jerry DiPaola
2903148_web1_GTR-PittUNC03-111519
Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review
Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett celebrates his touchdown with Jimmy Morrissey during the second quarter against North Carolina Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019, at Heinz Field.

Monday was a regularly scheduled day off for Pitt football, but while the practice fields on the South Side were silent, players’ voices were not.

Several of them went on Twitter — using the hashtag #WeWantToPlay — to join players from around the nation in pleading with Power 5 officials to allow a college football season to proceed this fall.

Despite those pleas, Big Ten Presidents have voted, 12-2, against playing football in the fall, national talk host Dan Patrick reported Monday, citing sources. Patrick said the Pac-12 also is against playing football in the fall.

On Twitter, one of the strongest points was made by Pitt senior defensive end Rashad Weaver, who missed the entire 2019 season with a knee injury. If the season is canceled, he would take two seasons of inactivity into his NFL career.

Wrote Weaver: “If opting-out is ok, then opting-in should hold just as much weight. Let those who wanna play, play and those who don’t, don’t.”

Several players, including Pitt’s Jaylen Twyman, have decided not to play this season.

Clairton graduate Lamont Wade, a senior safety at Penn State, said concern for playing a season should have ramped up earlier than a month before the first games were scheduled.

“I just feel like this whole time nobody cared (about) the season, taking things for granted and assumed that it would just pop up and we’d be fine,” Wade wrote. “The day we went in national quarantine is the day Presidents & Universities should been findin’ out ways to make this happen.”

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, presumed to be the top overall choice in the 2021 NFL Draft, called football “a safe haven” from the coronavirus.

Most distressing for players and coaches would be the cancellation or postponement of games after university officials adopted a wide range of mitigation measures to slow the spread of the virus.

Pitt senior center Jimmy Morrissey said Friday during a conference call with reporters that players are wearing face shields during practice, not merely on the sideline or in the locker room.

“It’s the new normal,” he said. “As long as we can play football. If that’s the price you have to pay, that’s a pretty cheap price.”

Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.

Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.

Get Ad-Free >

Categories: Penn State | Pitt | Sports
Sports and Partner News