Howard Griffith Looking At All Data As College Football Parent

Howard Griffith has earned the respect from many for his work on and off the football field. 

The former Super Bowl champ is now an analyst on the Big 10 Network and is in a position of advising his son, Houston, on his football future after seeing the Big 10 cancel it's 2020 season. 

"It's a very difficult decision to make," Griffith said on the Big 10 Network. "As you're going to find out pretty soon when they get to 20-21 years old, they have minds of their own. They are set in their ways a little bit as far as what they want to be able to do. Houston and his teammates have worked extremely hard as the rest of the men and women around the country who were hoping they would be able to have a fall sport. It's starting to increase that it might not happen."

The Chicago native was pleased to see college football players stand up for what they wanted to do earlier this week, but Griffith is also cautious when it comes to playing.

"You look at the movement that happened on Monday with the players #WeWantToPlay," said Griffith. "You see the coaches getting into that. They're conditioned to do one thing, go straight ahead and go straight ahead fast and really compartmentalize everything they are doing. 

"As a parent, you also have to look at what the numbers are saying and what else is going on - not just that member institution, but all the institutions across college football." 

Griffith is also aware people need to be smart and wants the universities to have the best interest in mind for all students as the academic year starts. 

"One thing we've always talked about from the very beginning is Covid is in control of Covid," stated Griffith. "There are things we can do - precautions we can take, but at some point, there is just probably too much risk. On the other side of it, there is too much liability if you're an institution that you might not want to go down that road. 

"You talk about higher learning; it's about putting your students, not just the student-athletes, in the best possible position you can for them to be educated as safely as possible. The way things look, it's becoming more difficult to be able to do that. We'll have to see probably in the next 24-48 hours what exactly is going to happen as far as some of our institutions go."