Twenty-six of the football players at Kentucky’s three Football Bowl Subdivision schools are listed at 300 pounds or more.
Every one of them is obese as defined by the body mass index tables of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every one of them, therefore, is at elevated risk of COVID-19.
So before America’s universities resume a high-contact sport pervasively played by enormous people, it’s worth asking how high a price they are prepared to pay. It’s worth asking whether football’s entertainment value and financial benefits outweigh the welfare of its players.
These are questions that have been largely glossed over in the frantic search for conditions that can make football feasible during a pandemic.