UPDATE: This article has been updated with information regarding the Governor’s Office’s response to UNC’s request to allow parents into football games.

Pat Crowley has been the only other football head coach in his son Will’s life beside UNC’s Mack Brown. He didn’t miss any of his son’s games through either middle school or high school and visited for nearly every single home game during Will’s first season with the Tar Heels in 2019.

This year, though, that tradition is in jeopardy.

Like many elements of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, college football in Chapel Hill will be different to begin the season on Saturday, as no fans will be in Kenan Stadium. Governor Roy Cooper’s executive order, which has been in place to establish public health guidelines amid the spread of COVID-19, limits mass gatherings to 50 people outdoors and does not exclude sporting events.

The state’s orders played a part in Carolina Athletics announcing no sport would have fans in the stands for home games through at least the end of September.

Crowley says he understands the state’s response to the ongoing pandemic is fluid and the gathering limit is in place to help keep people safe. But he points to other aspects of the state’s reopening that he believes are equally as challenging to public health as attending a football game.

“It doesn’t make sense when you have 50 percent in an indoor restaurant and 30 percent at gyms now,” says Crowley, “but you limit it to 50 people at an outdoor stadium for 50,000 [people]. At first, I thought it was an oversight.”

Will is a backup tight end, who Crowley acknowledges might not make it onto the field much this season during competition. But his dad says that doesn’t make him less interested in being there to support the work his son has put into being part of the team. Pat, who played at UNC himself and still coaches high school football, describes the sport as a finite journey.

“They’re not professionals,” he says, “they’re still kids. They’re not living in a bubble like the NBA or NHL. They need to have that support from the parents.”

Crowley says in the last few weeks, he’s been urging other parents of Tar Heel athletes to email the governor’s office to describe their feelings. He hopes by raising the issue to state officials, an exception for families’ attendance to sporting events could be made for outdoor venues. To Crowley, requiring temperature checks, face coverings and very distanced seating could be enough to let parents into Kenan Stadium, following a similar model to what the state of Virginia will have in place.

Parents are not the only ones calling for this exception. Brown opened his Monday press conference with comments about the importance of players seeing their families in the stands.

“These parents have seen these kids play since a very early age and they need to be there and they need to be there to celebrate with them after a win, to try to pick them up after a game that you didn’t play well in,” Brown said,” because mental health is so important right now in their academic support.”

It’s not just the state guidelines that would need to be changed for parents to attend. Orange County recently extended its state of emergency order and had its gathering limit deviate from North Carolina’s. The county remains at a 10-person indoor limit and a 25-person outdoor limit.

Crowley admits he has not spent much time attempting to navigate the local order. He says he hopes if the governor makes an exception for families, the county government might as well.

The Crowleys are considering still driving from Winston-Salem to Chapel Hill for the Syracuse game, perhaps watching the game at a downtown restaurant. Pat says his family feels happy and grateful UNC’s season is even going to begin this weekend. But Crowley says he sees letting parents and families see their children play is appropriate to ask for.

“I feel badly for everybody that’s been affected by the [pandemic,]” he says. “I don’t want us to come across as being selfish, I wish everybody to be there. Under the current rules, that can’t happen, but I do think an exception [for parents and families] is reasonable.”

“Parents aren’t fans, parents are parents,” adds Crowley . “It’s just different and the kids need them there to be a part of that for a lot of different reasons.”

On Thursday, InsideCarolina reported Governor Roy Cooper’s Office responded to UNC’s request for families to be in the stands for Saturday’s game against Syracuse. The request was denied.

Carolina Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham shared a statement with the outlet, saying he was disappointed to hear the exception was not granted.

“Parents provide incredible support to our student-athletes,” he said. “We appreciate that our state officials have the difficult task of ensuring the health and safety of all of our citizens, and we are confident that we can distance several hundred family members within football stadiums across our state that hold tens of thousands. We remain hopeful that families – and fans – will be able to return to competitions in the future.”

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