A group of football players and staff at Colorado State University, have accused the athletic administration of a coronavirus testing cover-up.
The allegations include threats of loss of playing time, telling players not to report symptoms, and claiming that the school is altering contact tracing reports to keep positive testing numbers down.
“I believe there is a cover-up going on at CSU,” an anonymous current player said. “But they could only cover it up so long and now that we have so many cases across athletics, they can’t cover it up anymore. It’s not about the health and safety of the players but about just trying to make money off the players.”
Anonymous staffers have also raised the alarm over a cover-up within the program.
“There are some red flags in the athletic department but the common denominator with this administration is to protect the coaches before the student-athletes and that makes them feel more like cattle than student-athletes,” one anonymous staffer siad.
Colorado State Athletic Director Joe Parker spoke on the current state of testing at CSU.
“This (athlete) population is the most tested population there is here but obviously some feel that is not a good enough job to make them feel comfortable regarding their health,” he said. “If that’s the feeling, we will need to amp it up.”
One anonymous player directly implicated the coaching staff in the scandal.
“I think everybody could be doing a better job,” the player said. “But for our coaches to tell players not to tell trainers if they have symptoms because we had so many guys out is wrong.”
As of CSU’s last practice on July 29th, there were 27 players missing due to COVID-19.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn
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