Will Penn State All-American linebacker Micah Parsons’ decision to opt-out of season open the flood gates for other potential first-round NFL picks like Trevor Lawrence?

Micah Parsons making a tackle in game against Michigan

Photo: Penn State athletics

Penn State football fans are devastated, according to their “Onward State” reactions. Seeing your top player decide to not play in 2020 and be a major part of what could have been a great season — if it is played at all — was heartbreaking. 

Most, however, understood it.

And many analysts praised Parsons for making the right move with all of the uncertainty of Covid-19 and the ability of football teams to protect their players from it. 

Was this about health or about selfishness?

Decision correct for star players

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes presented the dilemma for Parsons and other stars,

The NCAA won’t spike this doomed football season, so the players who can must protect themselves. Why would someone like Clemson junior quarterback Trevor Lawrence risk himself during a COVID-addled, watered-down, pandemic-shortened season? Why would any top player?

Every incoming senior or junior or who can reasonably expect to be taken in the first three rounds of the 2021 draft should opt out of the 2020 season. If the NFL’s COVID-19 strategies fail, he won’t play next season, either.

Marcus Hayes, “Penn State’s Micah Parsons, others wisely follow Eagles’ 

Marquise Goodwin, opt out of 2020 season,” Inquirer, August 6, 2020

Parsons played as a true freshman

Parsons was entering his junior season at Penn State, and his sophomore years was a sensational one. He was a consensus All-American and was voted as the winner of the Butkus-Fitzgeral Linebacker of the Year in the Big Ten. 

A five star recruit out of Harrisburg High School, Parsons stayed home and decided on Penn State after being recruited by Ohio State and other top universities. He was one of the premiere recruits by Coach James Franklin, in the same league as Saquon Barkley who earned NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in the NFL after a stellar Penn State career. 

Wise decision or just selfish?

The first reality is that having a complete football season, or one at all, is still problematic. College football, though, is a billion dollar enterprise for the schools involved, and they are going to do everything they can to ensure that the season takes place. 

As Marcus Hayes writes, playing football this year provides too much risk for the players,

This is the best choice for all college players, and, really, the only choice for the best of them. Why risk sickness, or injury, in a sham of a college season being played during a pandemic solely for the profit of television rights- holders, conferences, the NCAA, and its member schools? The kids won’t get nearly enough reward to validate their risk …

The NCAA, the conferences, and the schools themselves can implement as many safeguards as they like, but we’ve seen positive tests or outright outbreaks at every school that won a national championship in the last 15 years -- LSU, Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State, Auburn, Florida, and Texas. The best and richest programs can’t control COVID, and training camp hasn’t started yet. Imagine the peril the players will face 

when fraternities reconvene.

Forget that tired argument about the invulnerability of the young and healthy. COVID can crush anyone.

Marcus Hayes, Inquirer, Aug. 6, 2020

So, why would an athlete who has a future that could bring in that much money decide to put that at risk?

Players cannot trust schools or coaches

Another Big Ten player who is expected to be a first-round pick in the NFL draft has also opted out, and it is a tremendous blow to his team, just as Parson’s is to Penn State. 

Minnesota Gophers receiver Rashod Bateman announced that he will forgo the season this year to concentrate on the NFL draft next year. 

Bateman cited uncertainty about whether or not he could be protected by his school and college football in general,

Rashod Bateman found a home with the Gophers two years ago, but he has already decided to leave.

The star receiver from Georgia announced in a social media video Tuesday he had opted out of the 2020 football season to train for the 2021 NFL draft.

He told the Gophers of his decision in the morning, citing “uncertainty around health and safety in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Bateman, who would have been a junior for a team coming off an 11-2 season, called this “the hardest decision” he has ever made.

Megan Ryan, “Gophers star Rashod Bateman cites ‘health and safety,’ 

won’t play in 2020,” Star-Tribune, August 5, 2020

Hayes writes that players cannot trust anyone in this sad saga,

Parsons, Bateman, and every other college football player knows they can’t trust their coaches, who will abandon them at the whiff of a better-paying job; and they certainly cannot trust administrators. Many of the college suits are revealing themselves as monsters, ravenous for all of the money they can squeeze out of sickened young bodies, but with no appetite for decency.

Marcus Hayes, Inquirer, August 6, 2020

Decision comes down to this

Hayes writes about Indiana University lineman Brad Feeney who is a big guy and is having health problems. But, he also identifies that culprit responsible for this,

College football will always chase the money.

Indiana University’s outbreak sent Feeney to the ER. Rutgers popped more than 30 cases last month and last week became the sixth Big Ten school to temporarily shut down “voluntary” workouts.

The kids are getting wise. If they think they can afford to miss the season, and if they’re at risk, or if they’re just worried, they’re giving the opt-out option serious consideration. As well they should. They know Sankey and his confederates see players as nothing more than faceless, disposable, low-wage labor.

As they always have.

Marcus Hayes, Inquirer, Aug. 5, 2020

Conclusion

The truth is that Micah Parsons would have loved to play football for the Nittany Lions this fall, but he is making the right choice for him and his family. 

The major concern of colleges and universities throughout the country should be the safety of students on campuses, not the safety of football players. These athletes realize that, and they are making the right decision. 

Whether or not college athletes decided to join Parsons and Bateman is hard to say at this moment. Practice has not yet started. At that point, players will be face with the unvarnished truth: This could be a very risky football season.