The Kerr Report Mailbag
Spectator madness, mask wearing in football, tweets, zooms and emails
As the snow begins to melt (slowly) our thoughts turn to the outdoors and spring.
And this year, that means football.
There remains a basketball season to play and finish. I’ve been writing about fans (or lack thereof) and worrisome practices by schools throughout Chicagoland.
That topic (and the return football) has been front and center this week. As good a time as any to do a deeper dive in a Kerr Report Mailbag.
Let’s begin with a question I threw out Monday on Twitter.
This tweet prompted so much Twitter traffic that I published an article Tuesday morning of this week.
Many of you reading this have already read the article but it’s interesting to see as a reporter how certain topics are received on social media. This is a circumstance when Twitter response is a positive as the flood of replies led me to write about it for the newsletter. In that manner, Twitter can provide a feedback loop for generating story ideas and in turn, serving my audience by giving them what they want.
I know most of you reading this care about education. You care about kids being able to participate in athletics. And you’re fed up with some of the restrictions that still remain.
Public schools remain in a hybrid model for both learning and athletics (more privates are full time). As we approach March of 2021, that needs to change.
Since the beginning of the month, I’ve been attending a couple of basketball games a week. Schools are bound by a public health guideline that caps the number of fans at 50. The guideline is a common one from the Illinois Department of Public Health—arbitrary and ill-judged. From what I’ve witnessed, schools are doing what they perceive to be ‘heathy and safe’. But ‘healthy and safe’ is devoid of common sense.
This tweet sums up the approach by most:
Based on an eye test, gyms that typically seat 1-2,000 can support well north of 50 spectators. It could hold several hundred actually, and still meet the harebrained IDPH mitigations. God forbid a public institution should violate a science-based conclusion that states one person over 50 inside a several-thousand square foot gym is unsafe.
But the most fans I’ve counted in any gym thus far was 40 (at Notre Dame College Prep). Not 50. 40. The others have been in the 25-35 range.
I interviewed District 128 associate superintendent Briant Kelly recently for an article I’ll be publishing next week in the newsletter. I asked him about the spectator limit and how his district (which encompasses Libertyville and Vernon Hills High Schools) are determining how many fans they allow into the gymnasium:
Athletics was on a long pause. Over the winter holidays and winter break…one of the things we prioritized was trying to get practice back up in person. Coaches did a great job of doing things virtually during that pause. We wanted to get things back up safely for both our coaches and students. One of the things we looked at while practices were going on is we hadn’t done a high-risk sport inside with teams. We really felt like we wanted our administrations to buildings and grounds to kids to get back into a game and feel comfortable let’s get that going and we’ll make a progression towards fans. So our priority was to really get the contests going first. And our administration working with grounds to do what’s best for students.
(The athletic directors) myself and Prentiss (Lea, D128 superintendent), we work together and look at all the guidance and that’s the hardest thing. There’s guidance from ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) there’s guidance from IDPH and there’s guidance from the IHSA and we’re trying to look at all those pieces and trying to look at everything we have to put in place to have students and to combine with starting athletics safely.
We are looking at only home fans and limiting tickets to players. Originally it was 30 feet from the sideline and that got decreased to 12 feet. So how many can we fit safely into the gym and feel comfortable? They will limit just two per player so how many tickets? To say 50, that doesn’t work in every gym so to just throw a number out there…we were looking at what’s safe and manageable. And we want it to be an enjoyable experience for the people there too.
For anyone who has attended a game at Libertyville High School or any basketball game in Chicagoland, what’s makes the experience more enjoyable for everyone involved, including players, coaches and officials, are fans. What is safe and manageable is 50 spectators. That’s not ‘throwing a number out there’, that’s common sense.
I don’t have a lot of hope for administrators changing their conservative stance before the conclusion of the basketball season. There’s just a little over two weeks left. But for the spring and summer sports?
Open the gates. Stop regulating access.
Check out this tweet with an appropriate image I think for absurdity of the situation:
Thank you for the work and reporting you have been doing regarding youth/hs sports in this state. Your writing is what is needed. Too bad other news outlets don't pick up your pieces.
Is there a way to follow up regarding the mouthpieces and masks? It is hard to understand the rationale when college and pro players are not doing this. Students are being portrayed as lepers and it is ridiculous.
-H.M.
Well, H.M., thank you for the kind words. I don’t need mainstream media validation because I have you, the reader. That’s what I’m most focused on every day; my relationship with the audience and serving them.
This is a great question and one that is on everyone’s minds with regards to football.
Monday, the IHSA published their rules guidance for the spring 2021 season.
In it includes the policy for mask-wearing:
*FACE MASKS [Rules 1-5-1a, 1-5-3c(4)]*
Players are required to wear cloth face coverings under their helmets.
So as of now, players will be required to wear masks while playing. Face shields are not a suitable replacement:
Plastic shields that cover the entire face shall not be allowed (unless they are integrated into the face mask and attached to the helmet and are clear without the presence of any tint).
Wednesday, we had Sam Knox on the '‘Jon and Joe Show” podcast. Sam is an assistant executive director with the IHSA, specifically in charge of football (wrestling and baseball as well).
Joe and I asked Sam about the 50 spectator limit and overall communication with the IDPH:
I'd like to say communication with the IDPH has been great. We're been frustrated at times with the lack of communication. But we know as well as your schools are, the IHSA, IESA the state board of education, the IDPH, we’re all trying to figure this out as we go. Having never been down roads like this before. But communication is there. Not daily but when we ask questions, they do get back to us and we share them with our member schools.
Most of our questions lately center around football. People are concerned about the current spectator limit and questions around that. People ask, ‘have you seen our football field? Have you seen our bleachers?’ Even small school football where people kind of stand around the fence and don’t sit in the bleachers. They feel that we can comfortably put more than 50 at a football game. So we are waiting on an answer for that.
On the cloth mask requirement under helmets and social distance requirements, Knox had this to say:
The other piece is related to individual players. They are saying that kids when they cannot be socially distant, have to wear a face mask, similar to the masks we wear in public or at school. In football, it’s really hard to be socially distant when you are playing the game or in practice. Now if you are practicing punt return or kick return or throwing passes to one-on-one kids you can be pretty socially distant in those situations. But the concerns about playing football while wearing a mask are…how can a kid wear a mouthpiece in his mouth and a mask over that? For many of our kids the mouthpiece is connected to the face mask or the helmet. Not all, that’s not a rule, but many do so they won’t lose the mouthpiece. The others from officials…how can we know if a kid has a mouthpiece when there’s a mask covering his face? Challenging questions and we’ve asked the IDPH to help with those and several other football and other sports-related questions as those sports are just around the corner.
Our main question has been with the IDPH is we really feel like everybody on the sideline—coaches, chain crew, statisticians, media, substitutes on the bench—those folks can wear a mask, they’ve been doing it for months, it’s no big deal. But the 22 players on the field, we feel like for safety reasons, and our Sports Medicine Advisory Committee agrees with this, for safety reasons, it’s probably best if those 22 players on the field do not wear a mask while they are out there playing.
Not much news there in terms of resolution to the issue at hand but it’s good to know Knox and the IHSA are addressing the top of mind concerns—how there has to be more than 50 spectators at a football game (it’s outdoors for pete’s sake) and there’s no flippin’ way a kid should have to wear a mask under a helmet. How can that be safe?
Unless breathing is considered non-essential while exercising.
Don’t take my word for it. I’m far from a doctor.
Here’s the Center for Disease Control’s stance on mask wearing and helmets:
Mitigation protocols absent of logic is a tired theme since the pandemic started almost a year ago. Here’s another one.
Wrestling, a ‘summer’ sport, begins April 19. Knox, also in charge of wrestling, said on the podcast that wrestlers will be allowed to compete mask-free during matches.
This tweet alerted me to the recent adjustment to a previous mitigation that required wrestlers wear masks:
Knox confirmed this change on the podcast and addressed my question about the selective interpretation of state public health officials as to what’s deemed safe and what is not:
This can get quite maddening for our staff as well. For many weeks we were under the impression—and the IDPH had said—all wrestlers have to wear masks while in competition. Then just recently, they changed their position on that, thankfully. When kids are stretching or jogging or doing drills against air, as they do in wrestling, but when they are one-on-one on the mat, in practice or doing drills or competition, they are not required to wear a mask. We are grateful for that but you mentioned for the sport of football where yeah, there is contact in football but it’s for a few seconds at the most and very rarely do kids play every play in every game, at some (class) 1A or 2A schools they do, but most schools (in Chicagoland) they have specialists; offense and defense and very rarely do kids play both ways at the big schools. Their contact is much more minimal than in wrestling. We’ve asked those questions of the IDPH and we’re hopeful of some positive replies so we can share those with our schools.
You can catch the full audio of the podcast here.
While we are playing sports and more are on the way, the irregularity in communication and foolish guidelines from state public health officials remains a major problem.
I have been critical of the IHSA in this newsletter. But I do not fault them here. This is strictly a Pritzker/Ezike show.
Another tweet that sums up the silliness:
Yeah, pretty much.
This tweet is spot on with the actions of public schools—and most politicians—since March of 2020. It’s the ‘lowest common denominator’ approach to governing—elevate the least rational idea and dumb down the consensus, where coherence and sensibility lie.
I re-watched the movie “Lincoln” last weekend. It’s a bio pic but doesn’t take a linear approach to the life of Abraham Lincoln, telling his story from the time he was a boy until his death, for instance.
Instead, the film features a moment in time in Lincoln’s life (and a pretty important one) as he lobbied Congress for the passing of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery. Lincoln did so under tremendous pressure, as in early 1865, the Civil War was still dragging on. Lincoln was trying to end a practice he knew to be immoral—slavery—while negotiating the conclusion of a war where the opponent, the Confederacy, believed slavery to be a way of life.
Lincoln, and his “Team of Rivals” (the book from which the film is based) managed to persuade enough congressman, many of whom were slaveholders, to gain passage of the amendment.
One of the best scenes in the film is the actual vote on the floor of the creaky congressional hall:
What struck me is how these men, tortured by the decision they had to make, voted on principle over party.
They understood the weight of their choice, how life-changing it would be, yet did the right thing, not what would garner back slaps and bourbon shots from their political peers.
Man, could we use a shot of principle today.
The above scene from “Lincoln” is the type of history we are not doomed to repeat but rather, should seek out its repetition. It’s the polar opposite of group think.
I don’t know where we’d be if Lincoln were governor of Illinois in 2020-21. But I’m pretty sure the best idea would win the day, not the one least absent of risk.
Thank you for continuing to be a voice of sanity. -D.M.
I appreciate the kind words, D.M. I started TKR seven months ago so every day I don’t have to worry about anything else but giving my audience the truth.
Editorial and creative freedom is a valuable asset.
Just ask Bill Murray.
Thanks for reading the mailbag everyone. Have a great rest of your week and weekend.
Do you have tip/comment/suggestion for the Mailbag? Send to Jon and jon@jonjkerr.com.
Has one high school athlete died from COVID? I mean, 1 high school athlete anywhere in the world?