The Texas Football Coronavirus Outbreak Is a Preview of the Fall

Texas announced 13 of its football players have tested positive for coronavirus. That's a big number, considering 58 players initially returned to campus last week. Frankly, this is just a preview of the fall. If the NFL and NCAA plan to play football on a normal schedule, both organizations have to get comfortable with the fact that a lot of players will undoubtedly contract the virus.

The 13 positive test results include two players who tested positive last week, and in addition to those 13, four players have tested positive for antibodies. This news comes the day after Kansas State announced that eight Wildcats athletes tested positive for COVID-19 out of 130 who were tested. The virus isn't going away any time soon, so these results should be expected.

This is going to continue to happen as long as sports are happening. Athletes and the leadership of sports organizations have to be prepared for that. No matter how cautious athletes attempt to be, some are going to catch the virus eventually as they leave quarantine and get exposed to other people.

Football is likely to be hardest hit given how difficult it is to effectively social distance. It comes down to this: if the NCAA and NFL want to have football this fall, both need to be fine with a lot of players being infected. Because it's certainly going to happen, especially without a "bubble" situation that would be nearly impossible with the huge rosters football teams have.

If everyone enters the fall just understanding there will be positive tests and football will be played regardless, then this won't seem so jarring. Essentially, football has to accept it will be played through a coronavirus outbreak.

What happened at Texas is going to happen elsewhere. Those in charge either have to decide to shut football down or accept this result as a natural consequence.