#COVID19 and #highschoolfootball, a thread: A good chunk of my timeline is high school football coaches, because I'm a high school football coach. Obviously the pandemic has upended our lives, and many of us will spend the fall not coaching for the first time in a while. 1/n

First thing, EVERYONE WANTS TO PLAY! Even the players that are concerned about their health or a family member's. Even the coaches who are older or less healthy. #WeWantToPlay We love football, and we know how important it is for the players. 2/n

And some people are more worried than others. Some of us know coaches and friends who have died. Some have very young children where the threat is a bit larger. Some of us rely on grandparents who are understandably worried about their own health. 3/n

We are all at the mercy of administrations, school boards, health boards, and public officials with a range of opinions, prejudices, and competencies. Most of them are trying very hard to manage many constituencies that are pulling them in a multitude of directions. 4/n

Some of them are allowing football to proceed nearly as normal. Some have pushed back start dates. Some have cancelled seasons. Some are more aggressive than others in shutting down practices over positive tests. The grass is surely greener when you look elsewhere this year. 5/n

Everyone is frustrated; this isn't what we signed up for. Coaches want to coach ball and be around the kids, and we're getting to do way less of that. And as some teams start playing while others watch, that frustration is overflowing. 6/n

But what I'm seeing from a vocal minority of coaches is their frustration with not playing turn into a trutherism about COVID. Let me say this unequivocally:

COVID19 is not a conspiracy; it's a real disease that has killed over 250k Americans. 7/n

Those of you downplaying its seriousness are at best ignorant and at worse lying. I don't care if I lose followers (like I even know how many I have) for telling it like it is. Some of you sound like anti-vaxxers. Some of you probably ARE anti-vaxxers. 8/n

Yes, teens are FAR less likely to experience complications.

That doesn't eliminate them spreading it to other people. And your fellow coaches aren't teenagers either. 9/n

I'm not saying "Don't play." If community spread is low, I think we can have a season.

It's going to be very apparent, judging from what I saw from some games over the weekend, whether this is all going to work or end quickly. 10/n

It's unfair that teens who don't get nearly as sick are punished by this disease. Well, life is unfair. And, if we could have gotten our act together this summer, maybe a bunch of states wouldn't have cancelled football. 11/n

But what isn't helping is some of you sounding like conspiracy nuts in the hope that it will persuade the powers that be to let you play. You're making the rational and reasonable coaches among us look bad. 12/12