A 21-day mandatory ban from playing games this season in the case of a positive COVID-19 test worries Justin Fields enough to make him not even want to consider what he’d do if that situation were to arise for him. He couldn’t fathom it.
“That’s three games right there,” Fields said two weeks ago. “You might as well sit the rest of the season out.”
Yet, whether Fields wants to believe it or not, it’s a reality he and Ohio State have to deal with. For that reason, helped by daily rapid tests that allow teams to play on what university president Kristina Johnson calls “clean playing field,” the Buckeyes’ players and coaches have made their own personal sacrifices – from not partying to not living at home for fear of contracting coronavirus from a school-aged child – in order to minimize the possibility of testing positive for COVID-19.