The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, December 2, 2020 — 17
Michigan football coaches need to wear their masks correctly
As of Monday, there have
been
well
over
13
million
COVID-19 cases and more than
265,000 deaths in the United
States. In the state of Michigan
alone, there have been over
350,000 cases and more than
9,000 deaths.
Regardless, a football season
is being played at Michigan —
for now.
The Big Ten joined the rest
of college football in November,
stumbling its way through the
pandemic season. So far, 108
games have been cancelled or
postponed.
All these protocols and facts
Harbaugh
praised
worked
out for Michigan, until the
team
paused
all
in-person
activities
on
Monday
after
multiple presumptive positive
tests inside the program. The
results are now undergoing
confirmatory PCR testing.
That’s not too surprising,
though.
COVID-19 is not something
to be played around with.
Yet, it is treated as such every
Saturday on Michigan’s sideline
and others around the country.
Coaches constantly remove
their masks or face coverings to
talk to referees, their coaching
staffs and players. In other
cases, masks will just lazily
dangle below their noses.
Masks are not effective unless
they cover up the mouth and
nose, preventing any respiratory
droplets from spreading. People
release particles into the air by
breathing, coughing and even
talking.
And yet, coaches remove
their masks when they talk,
letting their germs roam free.
They can put their mask back on
right after but the damage has
already been done.
Infections
can
be
dramatically decreased by just
covering up your face, even if
it is for a few minutes. It’s all
about limiting others’ exposure
to the virus if someone is
infected.
While it may be a charade for
coaches and benched players
to wear masks during games,
the sentiment is still very
important and it could still save
people from getting sick.
There are bound to be dozens
of times throughout the week
when masks are improperly
worn during practices and in
locker rooms — a problem unto
itself. But, the least they could
do is just wear them properly
for four hours during games.
Unfortunately, that is just too
tall of a request for Michigan’s
coaches.
Harbaugh
is
not
the
only
perpetrator
but
his
shortcomings
are
fairly
noticeable. He wears two face
coverings during games — one
normally then another over his
headset. But, throughout the
game, both seem to disappear
off his face at times.
By
now,
millions
know
about Harbaugh’s duck-billed
mask. What does it actually
accomplish? The short answer
is nothing. Masks have to
cover the mouth and nose to
catch those droplets. It will be
pretty hard to do that when a
microphone is keeping it from
sealing his face.
Harbaugh’s failure directly
contradicts his logic of being
safe.
“Wearing the mask pretty
much at all times. I use a
double mask during the game,”
Harbaugh said.
Maybe the idea gets lost in
the intensity of the game. But
how can you spend months
bragging about your program’s
protocols when you yourself fail
to comply with a simple mask
mandate?
“Everybody’s tested daily.
We’ve been tested four times
since Friday and every day
before that,” Harbaugh said.
“So you’re saying during the
game, that’s considered to be
a clean field. Even if they’re a
presumptive positive the day
before the game, night before
the game, they’re not allowed to
play, which we’ve had, too.”
There’s a lot of backwards
logic
in
there.
Testing
is
effective in tracking the virus
but it does just that. All a test
does is tell a person if they are
infected or not at that moment.
They do not cure the disease or
stop the spread.
COVID-19 can take days to
incubate in someone’s body, so
a person can be negative one
day and positive a few days
later. Harbaugh seems to think
he is living in a utopia where a
negative means the individual
is immune for that day and is
good to go.
You’d think that five canceled
or
postponed
games
and
counting in the Big Ten alone —
where all teams are tested daily
— would alert him to the flaws
in that logic.
Precautions
are
still
necessary even if the entire
team is tested multiple times.
The best way to prevent the
spread is still by wearing a
mask. So what does the team
still need to do on the sideline
and in the locker room? Wear a
mask.
Regardless
of
Harbaugh’s
rationale, it is a problem.
And
Harbaugh
does
not
deserve
to
be
singled
out
because he is not the only
coach at Michigan or in college
football to fail to wear a mask
correctly. But, he is in the
spotlight as a big-time college
football
coach
at
a
major
university. Millions tune in
on Saturdays and he should be
setting a better example for
those at home.
Eight months into a pandemic
that is killing and hospitalizing
hundreds of thousands, millions
are still failing to don masks
appropriately
and
listen
to
medical professionals; wearing
a mask is not something that
can be messed around with.
College coaches need to be
setting a better example for
everybody. They have a huge
responsibility to wear masks
properly, whether they asked
for it or not.
Harbaugh agreed to a seven-
year $52 million contract with
the University of Michigan to
be their head coach. As a former
player at Michigan, he knew
what was going to be asked of
him, whether it was producing
a good product on the field or
being the face of the university.
Harbaugh
accepted
the
responsibility and now must
confront his shortcomings.
Michigan
athletics
has
good COVID-19 protocols and
testing in place. But, as revealed
Monday, that only does so
much. Harbaugh had been very
good about making his team
wear masks. But at least on
the sidelines, he and his staff
obviously failed.
It’s
impossible
to
know
whether the lack of mask-
wearing
on
the
sideline
Saturday contributed to cases
within the program, but it
certainly didn’t help.
Watching Harbaugh march
up and down the sideline,
failing to comply with his own
rules and expectations is an
embarrassment.
Harbaugh
begged
for
a
season amidst a global health
crisis. Now he needs to face the
music and listen to what the
doctors have been saying for
months.
As the season stands on the
brink of cancellation, the least
he could do is try.
Trachtenberg can be reached
at btrach@umich.edu and on
Twitter @brandon_trach1.
BRANDON TRACHTENBERG
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan Football coach Jim Harbaugh’s incorrect mask-wearing brings the shortcomings of pandemic prevention plans into clear focus.
The Wolverines aren’t excited about Michigan football either
A.J. Henning stopped in his
tracks, spotting the underthrown
ball from Cade McNamara and
pulled up. He stuck his hands
out and leapt, stretching over
the defender
and bringing
the ball in
as he came
down. The
third-quarter
play gained 28
yards, got the
Wolverines
into Penn
State territo-
ry and set up a Hassan Haskins
touchdown to cut the deficit to
just three points a few minutes
later.
It was one of the rare high-
lights of the game for Michigan
on Saturday.
And on Michigan’s bench, a
Daily reporter spotted Jim Har-
baugh telling his players to get up
and cheer.
If there’s a single moment that
captures the Wolverines’ season
from hell, that’s it. Not the emo-
tion on display when an overtime
Rutgers field-goal attempt went
wide. Not a loss to a rebuilding
Michigan State program that
gifted seven turnovers and the
Scarlet Knights’ first Big Ten win
in three years the week earlier.
Not getting run off the field by
Wisconsin and not a three-de-
cade win streak getting trampled
over against Indiana.
No, this takes the top spot. The
head football coach at an iconic
football school needing to prod
his players to stand up and cheer
as if it was Little League. How
utterly damning.
“Something like that, saying
it’s a bad culture, they’re not
there every day with us working,
grinding, watching film, working
out, getting there early, getting
treatment,” senior offensive
lineman Andrew Stueber said.
“So it’s noise that I don’t worry
about, that I don’t listen to much.
I play for the guys around me and
listen to my coaches.”
Later, pressed on the culture,
he said this: “If the powers that
be decide there is a problem, then
so be it. … I listen to my coaches,
I believe in them.”
Steuber’s right that it’s unfair
to speculate on what goes on in
Schembechler Hall in the middle
of each week. We’re not there.
We only see the end product.
But if the end product is hand-
ing a directionless Penn State its
first win of the season, with Har-
baugh needing to tell his players
when to cheer, then something is
irreparably wrong.
If the preparation was there,
Joe Milton wouldn’t have
wondered who Michigan State
linebacker Antjuan Simmons is.
Taylor Upshaw would have had
more to say about Penn State
running back Keyvon Lee after
he ran for 134 yards than, “I’m
sure he’s a talented back.”
If the culture was there, then
Harbaugh wouldn’t have had to
do his best Jeb Bush impression
in the third quarter on Saturday.
The Michigan football pro-
gram finds itself in a hard sit-
uation. Between injuries and
opt-outs, the top-end talent on
the roster is all but gone. They’re
depending on the remnants of a
decimated 2017 class and a thin
2018 class to be the upperclass-
men leading the team. They’re
subject to intense COVID-19
protocols and — though they
haven’t needed to go on pause —
offensive line coach Ed Warinner
made reference last Wednesday
to guys missing time because of
contact tracing.
That’s all real, and there’s
every chance the season would
have gone differently if not for a
global pandemic out of anyone’s
control.
But every FBS program in
the country is dealing with the
same issues on some level. And
this season — and all the baggage
that came with it — is exactly
what Jim Harbaugh very publicly
asked for.
“We’re gonna be ready to play
a game in two weeks,” he said
on Sept. 5. “Get the pads on and
our guys have trained without a
pause since June 15. So that’s our
position. We’re ready to play as
soon as we possibly can.”
He said those words at a
protest to which he showed up,
marched on the Diag and public-
ly went against his boss’s boss,
the University president. And for
what?
“Getting better every day,”
Stueber said, when asked what
there was left to play for. “Obvi-
ously we still have the big team,
OSU, at the end of the year. We
just need to click on all cylinders
and we’re in contention for that
game.”
Setting aside the almost laugh-
able notion that Michigan can
compete with Ohio State right
now, it’s hard to imagine that
University administrators aren’t
asking themselves the same
question right now.
“That’s much more of a med-
ical decision and it’s much more
of a University responsibility
than it is a football coach’s deci-
sion” University president Mark
Schlissel said in October, when
asked about Harbaugh’s antics. “I
didn’t play professional football
and coach a college team and
coach a pro team, and Jim didn’t
go to medical school and do a
residency and become a licensed
physician.”
What is he getting out of this
arrangement right now? There
are no fans in the stands, and
it’s hard to imagine there would
be many if that were allowed.
Nobody is making donations
based on a 2-4 trainwreck of a
football season. This is another
headache in a semester full of
them, nothing more.
You could say on that day in
September that Michigan was
motivated to play a season if it
got that chance. What exactly
happened between then and that
moment late in the third quarter
on Saturday is hard to say, but it
wasn’t anything good.
The program looks broken,
the players frustrated and tired.
There are three games left, and it
would be an act of mercy if they
could hit fast forward.
You’d say the misery reached
its bottom on Saturday when
Harbaugh needed to tell his
players to get up and cheer, but
Michigan has shown an uncanny
ability to sink to lower and lower
depths each week.
Lord only knows what the
next three games have in store.
Sears can be reached at
searseth@umich.edu or on
Twitter @ethan_sears.
ETHAN
SEARS
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan’s freefall season reached a new low on Saturday, falling to a Penn State team which entered the day with an 0-5 record on the year.