Clemson was livid that Florida State wouldn’t play the game.
Let’s be lawyers, and make a case for each of the teams that did not play its scheduled game over the weekend. Clemson had traveled to Florida State when it learned a player with mild symptoms who had practiced with the team all week tested positive Friday.
At that point, according to ACC protocols for the COVID-marred football season, the decision to play the game was up to the two schools. Clemson wanted to play but FSU was too concerned with the health of its team to agree to the noon kickoff, postponing the game.
Dabo Swinney, calling it a “COVID excuse,” was angry that his fourth-ranked and 6-1 Tigers could not carve up the 1-6 Seminoles, who were the subject of a 9,000-word ESPN.com story the day before about the collapse of a dynasty.
But the question must be asked of Swinney why he allowed a player who was showing symptoms of the virus but tested negative twice was not isolated until a determination could be made. There is 2-day to 2-week incubation period where that scenario could happen. And surely, Clemson could play it safe against this opponent.
Florida State, which already had a COVID outbreak, surely had the health of its players in mind. But very likely FSU, a 30-point underdog, also considered absorbing another embarrassing loss right after the Seminoles were ridiculed nationally by ESPN.
The schedule has changed like a checkers board in recent weeks, and the teams could meet on December 12. However, Swinney said he wouldn’t consider it unless FSU reimbursed $300,000 in travel costs.
The jury has a tough deliberation, with the Tigers having taken 9 buses to Tallahassee and finding out at breakfast Saturday morning, four hours before kickoff, that they had to pack up and go home. Clemson apparently offered to give all of its players rapid point-of-care tests and move the game to Sunday, but FSU refused.
Had the player not shown symptoms that week, Clemson might have been exonerated. But by not isolating him, it has to take the rap.
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