Syracuse‘s football team returned to practice over the weekend after addressing coronavirus concerns among the players, but coach Dino Babers on Monday described lingering uncertainty among some of them — using a military comparison to describe the choices that await them.
“There’s never been anything like this, and you see some players, they’re ready to go, you see some players like, ‘I have some concerns,’ and it’s almost like they’re deciding whether they’re enlisting into the Army or not, and whether they want to fight for their country or not. And it’s not fair to compare that because there’s nothing like enlisting in the Army,” Babers said on a video conference call with reporters.
“So there’s nothing like that to compare, but it’s the closest thing to it with COVID-19, and even though the numbers are low, if someone says, ‘Can you tell me 100% this is not going to happen?’ I’m not sure I can tell you 100% anything’s going to happen. … That and not having the answers when people ask you questions are the most frustrating. The word I can’t stand is, ‘I don’t know,’ and it seems like I’ve said that more in 2020 than I’ve ever said it in my life. And that is frustrating for someone who’s wired the way I’m wired.”
Babers’ father, Luther, spent 21 years in the Navy, and Babers has often said that if he didn’t have a career in football, he would have gone into the military.
Syracuse has missed multiple days of practice over a miscommunication about testing frequency. Babers said his players’ concerns range from coronavirus to uncertainty over pending decisions the NCAA has yet to make over eligibility and redshirting. Some of those decisions are expected Friday, a date Babers called “one of the dates coming up in the future that’s going to be really important for a lot of people.”
“We always talk to these guys about knowledge is power and gain the most knowledge you can and make the most sensible decision you can make, but the [I don’t know] of things is really frustrating when you’re trying to make an educated decision if you don’t have all the information you need,” Babers said. “You need to be able to understand who has what concerns and give them the information they need to make the decision that’s best for them.”