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Dan Wolken, being the negative and pessimistic reporter he is, naturally fell into the group of sports media members that were actively rooting against sports having any sort of success during the pandemic.
Monday was a tough day for Wolken with Alabama and Ohio State capping off a college football season that was in major jeopardy. Despite the college football season being a massive success relative to the circumstances, moving pieces, and adjustments programs had to make seemingly week after week, Wolken just had to get one last negative shot in.
Just in case you forgot, Wolken felt it was his place to remind you that we’re still going through a pandemic and that some players and coaches did indeed test positive during the season.
How many SEC football players and coaches ended up getting COVID? Not sure how you just skip that piece before patting yourself on the back for how the season went. https://t.co/2mD7PL2CfL
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) January 11, 2021
You know your statement is ridiculous when nice guy Scott Van Pelt decides to chirp back at you. SVP reminded Wolken that millions of other people have tested positive for COVID-19, including himself, and they weren’t playing college football.
The crowd that actively rooted against a college football season seemed to forget that even if these athletes weren’t playing sports, they could still contract the virus doing literally anything in their normal, everyday lives.
I didn't play for an SEC football team. I wear masks, I don't go out into crowded places. I followed suggested protocols.
I "ended up getting it."
Crazy, right?
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 11, 2021
Wildly enough, Wolken wasn’t the most ridiculous and negative sportswriter of 2020, that award goes to USA Today’s Christine Brennan. In September, after the Big Ten reversed course and elected to play college football in 2020, she wrote that the decision marked the darkest day in the conference’s history.
Not once did she mention Jerry Sandusky or Larry Nassar in her column.