Biggest Concern For San Diego State's 2017 Season? Chickenpox
Weird things happen during training camp. If you put together 125+ guys being dudes, that practice every single day in the sweltering heat, there are a few bizarre things that are bound to happen. HBO has aired an entire show for years about the intriguing “training camp.”
San Diego State is preparing for their 2017 season in hopes of a third straight MWC championship. If losing the all-time FBS rushing leader and not having a stadium to play in come 2019 wasn’t enough for the Aztecs, they are currently battling against a potentially unbeatable opponent:
San Diego Union Tribune-Three San Diego State football players have been diagnosed with chickenpox, raising concerns that the highly contagious disease could spread to their Aztecs teammates.
SDSU began training camp this week, so the players have been in close contact with each other for practices, team meetings and meals. On Friday, the players were on buses together when they traveled back and forth from campus for a practice at MCAS Miramar.
“I’m afraid that it might not be just three of them,” SDSU head coach Rocky Long said after Saturday night’s scrimmage. “The team’s been together for a whole week now.
“It’s dramatic if we lose a few more. … What if it hits 10 other ones?”
San Diego State has a game in three weeks against UC Davis. It takes up to three weeks for chickenpox to clear up. I would never cheer for a school to not be able to field a team on gameday, but if there was a scenario I wouldn’t mind a story like that it would be this one. Chickenpox, a childhood illness, ravaging a bunch of testosterone filled males is a funny thought.
The irony here is quite funny considering SDSU’s mascot is the Aztecs. I’d love to make an “oh, chickenpox taking down the Aztecs again?” joke during week 1 to make it seem like I’m a smart history buff.
(Side note: Yes, we are talking about the team that Clay Travis, soon to be owner of hundreds of millions of dollars, STOLE from Rico Bosco)
Part of the difficulty also comes in trying to determine whether players had chickenpox as children or were vaccinated for the disease.
“One of our guys was real nervous because he hung out with those guys (Friday), and he (supposedly) knew he had never been vaccinated and he knew he never had it,” Long said. “So we called his mother and she said he had it when he was 7. So if you ask these guys, they don’t know if they had it or not.”
Moms are the best. It’s good to know that there are other college kids out there that aren’t aware of any of their medical history and wouldn’t survive if they didn’t have their mom to call any time they had a medical concern.
SDSU officials may also need to reach out to others who have been in contact recently with the players.
At Miramar, the Aztecs seniors had breakfast with members of the air station’s football team before the practice. Players also signed autographs for children and posed for pictures with several people at the event.
There we go. It’s not just the football team that is in danger of having chickenpox, but the entire city of San Diego and members of the Marines!!!
Long said he has had virtually his entire team come down with the flu in the past. He’s also had some who contracted mononucleosis. But chickenpox? He never imagined having to deal with that.
“I didn’t think anybody got chickenpox anymore,” Long said. “Not in the United States. I thought that was done. I was shocked.”
Yeah, Coach Long, chickenpox isn’t polio.
What a quote. I love football coaches so, so much. They live in their own bubble of the world and anything outside of preparing for the read-pass option matters.
I’d be failing myself and Stoolies worldwide if I wrote this blog and didn’t mention the greatest chickenpox moment in TV history, which features Charlie Sheen as a part of the Navy:
Also, here is the second best chickenpox moment in TV history from the greatest childhood television show of all time, Full House: