Arizona State’s game against Cal on Saturday was canceled because of a COVID-19 outbreak within the Sun Devils’ football program. According to a report, the outbreak is “really bad.”
ASU released a statement on Friday in which they said there were multiple positive tests among the coaches and players over the last few days.
ESPN’s Matt Barrie provided more information than that. He says that an entire side of the ball (offense or defense) has COVID. He says six staff members are positive and was told the situation is “really bad.”
The situation within the ASU football program is dire. The facility is closed. An entire side of the ball has it. 6-staff members are positive. And they’re just at the beginning of the outbreak. When asked to describe it I was told: “This is bad. Really, really bad.”
— Matt Barrie (@MattBarrie) November 13, 2020
Between the positive tests and contact tracing, ASU fell below the conference’s 53 scholarship athletes amount needed to field a team.
Coach Herm Edwards said in a statement that he and his family were “fine.”
“Even with the marvelous care our medical professionals have provided for myself, my staff and my team over the past few months the virus still found me,” Edwards said. “So, I encourage all of you to take this virus seriously, to wear a mask, practice physical distancing and get tested whenever possible.
“As I’ve stated many times over, the health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes is absolutely paramount and we will not put them at risk. Our team has worked extremely hard to get to this point, and even played a game last weekend. We will continue to care for our students-athletes and follow all protocols very thoroughly as we prepare for our next game. Our team and coaching staff are disappointed, but we do understand what we are dealing with.”
ASU is 0-1 this season after blowing a lead against USC last week. Their game against Cal was one of two Pac-12 games canceled this weekend due to COVID (Utah-UCLA was the other).
Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr via cc by-sa 2.0
