A week after Michigan reversed course and brought football back to fall, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signaled that his state was considering the same, the Denver Post reported Tuesday.
Polis announced that the state is allowing the Colorado High School Activities Association to reconsider bringing the sport back to the fall. The CHSAA moved football, girls volleyball, field hockey, gymnastics and boys soccer seasons to spring on Aug. 4.
“We want to work with (CHSAA)” Polis said in the Denver Post. “If their board moves forward and wants to propose a fall season for CHSAA football, we would be thrilled to work with them to make that happen for the districts that are ready to go.”
The Governor suggested that some school districts could elect to play football in a shortened spring, which was set to begin March 4.
Gov. Polis: "We would be thrilled to work with" CHSAA on a fall football season https://t.co/1KdchxLGOX
— Colorado HS Football (@ColoHSFootball) September 8, 2020
Colorado has seen declining COVID-19 metrics, with a 7-day average of 269 cases and four deaths as of Sept. 8. A petition to bring football back to fall on change.org had nearly 14,000 signatures as of Wednesday.
“We continue to work collaboratively with our state, health and educational officials,” CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green said in a statement. “We’re monitoring information from other states to see if it’s applicable to reconsiderations in Colorado.”
Beginning with Utah on Aug. 13, 23 states have kicked off high school football seasons. Georgia and Florida — two of the states most severely impacted by the summer COVID-19 outbreaks — began their seasons last week.
Ten more states will be kicking off this weekend, including Pennsylvania, which went ahead with a football season against the advice of Gov. Tom Wolf. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards recently announced high school football could begin in October. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allowed her state to reverse its spring decision last week.
Eighteen state associations have either moved football to the spring or, in the case of Vermont and Connecticut, prohibited 11 on 11 football altogether. Rhode Island became the latest state to punt on football until spring, following Connecticut’s decision.
Protests have erupted over Connecticut’s move, announced Sept. 4., spurring state legislators to bring pressure on Gov. Ned Lamont to intervene, or at least allow a spring option.
