With college football carrying on elsewhere across the nation while programs in California remain unable to practice, USC football players made a public plea on Tuesday, asking Gov. Gavin Newsom in a letter to loosen restrictions surrounding college sports and “please let us play.”
“We have sat by for two weeks watching teams across the country play the game we love safely,” sophomore quarterback Kedon Slovis wrote directly to Newsom on Twitter. “Most schools have a fraction of the resources that our school and conference have provided to play safely. You are the only thing holding us back.”
The letter praised Newsom for his leadership in previously listening to athletes’ voices and even offered support for the Pac-12’s initial, science-based decision to postpone the football season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
But in light of a recent testing breakthrough and a conference-wide partnership that allows for rapid, daily antigen testing of the virus, the players wrote, “it now appears that the science and technology have turned in favor of playing.”
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