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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WVUALLEN" data-source="post: 131374424" data-attributes="member: 1112294"><a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/aug/02/pac-12-players-threaten-to-boycott-season-unless-c/">https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/aug/02/pac-12-players-threaten-to-boycott-season-unless-c/</a>Washington State football player opts out of fall season, alleges coach took issue with participation in Pac-12 unity groupUPDATED: Sun., Aug. 2, 2020“Because I do have sickle cell trait, and with this COVID it affects the respiratory system, so I just wasn’t comfortable playing at all,” Woods told The Spokesman-Review on Sunday. “And I haven’t heard any plans ensuring we’d be safe.”Dozens of his peers around the conference have expressed many of the same concerns, and “health & safety protections” were at the crux of the player movement – titled “#WeAreUnited” – that was rolled out Sunday morning by a group of passionate Pac-12 student-athletes threatening to boycott the fall season if the conference doesn’t meet a specific list of demands.At least one WSU player, Woods, has already opted out, informing first-year Cougars coach Nick Rolovich on a phone call Saturday he wouldn’t be playing because of “concerns with my health.”“We have made it clear that any student athlete who chooses not to return to competition for health or safety reasons will have their scholarship protected.”Woods told the S-R he’d been removed from a team group text message chat and was instructed to clean out his locker by Monday. The Cougars and other Pac-12 schools are permitted to begin the 20-hour-per-week access period with coaches beginning this week.“So you took all the actions to cut me,” Woods said. “That’s what happens when you cut somebody.”It was understood by Woods that his medical concerns wouldn’t jeopardize his future with the Cougars, even if he couldn’t be with the team during the upcoming season, but Rolovich’s comments indicated WSU would handle the situation one way if it’s “COVID related” and another way “if it’s joining the (unity) group.”Paraphrasing the conversation, Woods claimed Rolovich said the unity group would “change how things go in the future for everybody … at least at our school. So just think about that.”According to Woods, the coach also said if his player planned to fight issues of racial injustice, student- athlete compensation and other points raised by the unity group, “then there’s two sides here” and suggested that would be “at a different level moving forward.”Woods said he expected to receive “backlash” for his decision to join the movement. McDougle indicated he was in support of the unity group but later tweeted he wouldn’t allow it to compromise his participation in the upcoming football season.“I agree with everything the movement is fighting especially the health concerns but not playing this season isn’t an option for me I got ppl that need to eat. so if the NCAA wants to use me as a lab rat it is what it is.”</blockquote>

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