Slate: Two K-State athletes test positive for Covid-19

Previously

BracketCat introduced redshirt freshman tight end No. 81 Konner Fox to mark 81 days until the (tentative) start of the K-State football season. Meanwhile, in the Fanpost section, Coach833 gives a history lesson to most of you in naming the greatest Wildcat ever to wear number 81.

COVID-19

Yesterday’s sports headlines showed just how tenuous plans for a football season—or any college sports season, really—might be. The K-State Athletics Department announced that two athletes have tested positive for active COVID-19 infection. Making matters worse, some outlets are reporting that the two football players were permitted to participate in off-campus workouts before the positive result was known, raising the specter of virus spread to other team members. That quickly, K-State went from a clean virus slate to a potential infection cluster. It’s obvious by now that spread of the virus has not dissipated with the onset of summer weather, and it continues to threaten fall plans.

K-State Sports Extra talked to Assistant Head Coach Van Malone, who discussed his role in building a culture where players are encouraged to speak up about injustices.

Two of the all-time greats of the Coach Bill Snyder Era are on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame. Darren Sproles makes his first appearance on the list, while Michael Bishop has appeared previously. They are among the 78 players and coaches being considered for induction into the Hall.

Baseball

Though no Wildcats were selected in the truncated Major League Baseball draft last week, pitcher Brett Lockwood has chosen to get his pro career started, signing a free agent contract with the Cincinnati Reds.

Announcement

A combination of limited sports news and historic social events over the past few weeks led us to relax limitations on political discussions on the site. We’re going to dial it back down. Bring on the Cats Managing Editor Jon Morse made the following statement:

Alright.

We’ve tried to give people leeway over the last few months because this has been a time of great change and great trauma. That includes myself and other staff members, who have needed to express themselves in various ways.

We’re reeling it back in to the state we’re normally in under our actual community guidelines.

If something sensitive needs to be addressed editorially, within the Slate or another article, we will do so. We have mechanisms for doing so which involve third-party vetting.

There will be no more politics in the comments, however. If we do need to address a sensitive topic in the article, we’re just going to close comments. Taking comments on that article to another thread is similarly disallowed.

My rationale for this is simple: nobody is convincing anyone of anything. Nobody is even convincing uninvolved third parties of anything. There is nothing to be gained by it. All I see is people getting mad at one another, which is fine when it’s a band of you getting mad at ME, but not so much when it’s everyone else doing it to each other. There are other venues for that.

Thanks.

Follow @jonfmorse

Managing Editor at Bring on the Cats, SBNation’s Kansas State blog

Posted by Jon Morse on Jun 17, 2020 | 8:15 AM

We respect and appreciate the members of our BOTC community and hope our arguments in the future can focus on real, live actual sports.