We are all obviously devastated as Ohio State football fans about the cancellation of the season. Players like Fields and Olave likely having played their last game in a Buckeye uniform, the potential damage to recruiting, and the sheer feeling of emptiness the Saturdays this fall will bring us all factor into this devastation.
But this is still nothing compared to how Columbus business owners must be feeling. I have seen projections of how much having no season will impact the local Columbus economy but I believe them to still be underestimates. Let me tell you, the results of this will be horrific. Numerous long time gameday institutions, restaurants, bars etc. will shutter and never reopen. So many dreams shattered, so many memories destroyed. And what is the explanation that we, the fans, and they, the local business owners get? "There was too much uncertainty." And when that proves to be insufficient, and more information is demanded Kevin Warren responds with an "Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Taskforce" where the cancellation of the season will "expressly not be discussed." Is this a joke to these people? Are they unaware of how many people's livelihoods they're about to destroy? This all just feels like a bad dream, a sick joke that's gone too far. I'll get over missing a season, Ill be super bummed yeah, but I'll figure it out. My heart goes out to any business owner who might never recover, or any Ohio State seniors missing their last football season on campus. Its what those people are missing that really pisses me off about this.
What Needs To Happen
Now that it seems a season reinstatement is out of the picture, we need to move on and decide where we go from here. And I'm not talking about a "spring season" or something like that. There needs to be consequences for the people in charge. We need to know the results of the Big 10 President's vote, and each President that voted to cancel must publicly explain to their students and their community why they did so and what medical data informed that decision. If that is found to be insufficient they should be fired immediately, and their finances investigated to see if (as I suspect) there were any shady dealings going on. Next, Kevin Warren. As soon as the dust settles on this, Kevin should be immediately relieved of his duties and deposed in a court of law. He should be forced to go day by day, and in detail describe what specific events and data caused him to make the decision he did. Every shred of his financial and personal records should be examined under a magnifying glass by a team of highly competent non-B1G affiliated investigators. If he turns up clean, let him return to whatever he did before his current job. If there is even a whiff of impropriety, he should face jail time. An armed assailant robs a convenience store and gets 10 years in jail. They destroyed one business owners livelihood temporarily, Warren is destroying thousands permanently. So shouldn't the sentence be proportional?
