Fox Sports Analyst Joel Klatt Tweets Disrespectful Comparison About Coronavirus and College Athletes
Major changes may be coming to the world of college sports because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Universities that are losing money will have to make tough choices: Do they endanger their student-athletes for financial means, or risk having to shut down those programs altogether?
The University of Akron is one of the first to make changes by cutting three sports programs Friday. The men's cross country, men's golf, and women's tennis teams are all gone and those athletes are now without a team and scholarship.
This is obviously brutal news for all those affected. Fox Sports' Joel Klatt had an interesting response to the news that started out sincere, but ended in a bizarre manner.
I feel terrible for the Akron athletes that are losing their sport and scholarship today as a result of our response to this virus.
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) May 14, 2020
Keep in mind these athletes are over 150X more likely to be murdered or commit suicide than die from Covid-19 according to @CDCgov data
This pandemic has created a weird world in which sports analysts have taken to social media to state bold claims usually reserved for medical professionals. Klatt is not exactly sending a sincere message to the athletes by ending his tweet with something on his own personal agenda.
Akron announces the cutting of men’s cross country, men’s golf and women’s tennis.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) May 14, 2020
"The elimination of these sports, along with salary reductions for select coaches, staff position eliminations, scholarship and operating expenditure reductions will total approx $4.4 million."
Klatt's heart seems to be in the right place. But politicizing the situation doesn't help the student-athletes and just comes off as missing the point.