There’s a clear winner in the 2020 Mississippi high school football championship playoffs: COVID-19.
So far this week, six teams have forfeited Friday night playoff games due to coronavirus outbreaks, thus ending their seasons.
Rick Cleveland
Michael Fair holds the State Championship trophy during post-game interview in 2016. There will be no state championship for Fair or Lafayette in 2020. COVID-19 saw to that.
“It’s not supposed to be this way,” said Lafayette County coach Michael Fair, whose team was set to play Neshoba Central in a Class 5A playoff game on Friday night. “In football, your season is supposed to end on the field.”
Instead, Fair informed his team that their season had ended as the team gathered for a practice on Tuesday afternoon. The MHSAA follows Mississippi State Department of Health guidelines that deem three or more positive COVID-19 tests an outbreak requiring quarantining for 14 days. Fair had one player test positive on Saturday, another on Monday and a third on Tuesday. And that was that.
“One of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” said Fair, the former Mississippi State offensive line standout. “There were lots of tears. I feel for my seniors, some of whom have played their last games. But I feel for all our players. I mean, you work so hard for so long for something and then it ends like this.”
Lafayette County’s season had begun under tragic circumstances. Longtime Lafayette assistant coach Nacoma James, the team’s special teams coordinator, died of COVID-19 on Aug. 6. He was 42.
“Coach James was beloved by our players,” Fair said. “He wore a bow tie to school ever Wednesday, so we put a bow tie decal on our helmets this season to honor him. He was a real inspiration to our kids. You know, football teams are like a family and we lost a loved one. That made us that much closer, and it makes it that much harder for it to end the way it ended.”
Lafayette County is by no means the only high school team grieving this week. The scene was much the same at other schools across the state. In Class 1A, McAdams, near Kosiusko in Attala County, forfeited its game with Lumberton. In Class 4A, three of eight playoffs games scheduled have been cancelled due to COVID-19. McComb forfeited to Mendenhall. Lawrence County forfeited to Sumrall. Clarksdale forfeited to Itawamba Agricultural. Another 5A playoff game was cancelled when Brookhaven was forced to forfeit to Pascagoula.
All this was as of Wednesday afternoon. More could follow before scheduled kickoffs on Friday night.
Last week, Puckett forfeited to Bogue Chitto in 2A, and Shannon forfeited to West Lauderdale in 4A.
Not coincidentally, pandemic numbers have soared in Mississippi recently. The state’s average number of daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 900 for the first time in three months. On Tuesday, 1,256 new cases and 17 deaths were reported.
The MHSAA reported just over 100 games forfeited during the 10-game regular season. Nearly two dozen teams, including all Jackson Public Schools teams, opted not to play football this season. Many teams’ seasons were ravaged before the regular season ended and the playoffs began. Take 6A powerhouse Starkville, for example. Coach Chris Jones’ Yellowjackets appeared the best team in the state for much of the season. They were 5-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state before COVID-19 struck.
Because of COVID, Starkville didn’t play a game for 21 days and didn’t so much as practice for two full weeks. When the Yellowjackets finally returned to the field, they lost three straight games, finished with a 5-3 record (including one forfeited loss) and out of the playoffs.
“I know it’s been a tough year for everybody, and some of it is things you don’t even think about,” Jones said. “Because of COVID, we didn’t have the summer work you usually get. Our conditioning wasn’t what it should have been, and I’ve heard a lot of coaches say the same. Injuries rocked us about as much as COVID. And then when it hit us in October, we had to quarantine and we couldn’t even practice. Then, you come back and it’s like starting over and you have to play a team like Clinton, which was really hot at the time. Nobody wants to make excuses, but it is what it is. We weren’t ready.”
Jones was the first person to reach out to Lafayette County’s Fair when he heard the news about Lafayette having to forfeit Friday night’s playoff game.
“I know how it feels when it’s out of your hands,” Jones said. “It’s just sad.”
Mississippi’s public schools teams still playing are shooting for championship weekend to be held at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson on Dec. 4-5.
Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Dr. LouAnn Woodward, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Dean of the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and discusses the challenges Mississippi’s largest healthcare provider and teaching hospital faces because of COVID-19.
Woodward discusses how COVID-19 has aggravated Mississippi’s existing health challenges, how UMMC has adapted to the “new normal,” ways that she combats personal stress and where Mississippi is headed in the near term with COVID and the flu seasons hitting at the same time.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
Gov. Tate Reeves publicly endorsed Josiah Coleman eight days before the Nov. 3 election.
Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Josiah Coleman, who received $5,000 in campaign contributions from Gov. Tate Reeves’ political action committee earlier this year, apparently will participate in ruling on whether recent partial vetoes issued by the governor are constitutional.
Coleman was among the eight justices hearing oral arguments on Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by House Speaker Philip Gunn and House Pro Tem Jason White that challenges the constitutionality of Reeves’ partial veto this summer of money going to health care providers to combat COVID-19.
During the more than 60 minutes of oral arguments in the case, Coleman, who won reelection to his Northern District seat last week, asked questions that appeared favorable to Reeves.
Justice Josiah Coleman
When asked to comment on Coleman’s participation in the case, Supreme Court spokesperson Beverly Kraft said the justice declined to comment, adding: “It would be inappropriate to comment on a pending case.”
Reeves also offered no comment.
A few days before the election, though, the Republican governor had plenty to say about Coleman, and it was all positive. On social media a few days before the election, Reeves endorsed Coleman’s candidacy.
“Josiah Coleman is the true conservative running in north Mississippi,” Reeves tweeted on Oct. 26, eight days before the election. “Please don’t let liberals sneak one of their judges in here. Vote for Josiah Coleman.”
When Reeves was asked during an October news conference whether he supported a proposal on the November ballot that would remove language from the state’s 1890 Constitution designed to keep African Americans from holding political office, the governor urged support for Coleman’s reelection effort instead of answering that question.
“I hope all of my friends in north Mississippi will go to the polls and elect Justice Coleman,” Reeves said.
Documents filed with the Secretary of State’s office also revealed that the governor’s Tate PAC donated $5,000 to his campaign on Sept. 14.
The Code of Judicial Conduct says “judges should disqualify themselves in proceedings in which their impartiality might be questioned by a reasonable person knowing all the circumstances or for other grounds provided in the Code of Judicial Conduct.”
The Code of Judicial Conduct says a party to a lawsuit could seek a judge’s recusal or removal based on the fact the opposing party is a major campaign donor to the judge.
It should be pointed out that Coleman was not asked to step down by the House leadership, and in theory judicial candidates are not supposed to know who contributes to their campaigns. Contributions are supposed to go to a campaign committee overseen by a treasurer.
Coleman won his Nov. 3 reelection to a new eight-year term on the Supreme Court, defeating DeSoto County Chancellor Percy Lynchard Jr.
Central District Justice Kenny Griffis also faced an election challenge. While Griffis is leading in the race against Court of Appeals Judge Latrice Westbrooks, that race has not been officially called. Griffis, whose election effort Reeves did not comment on, was not present for oral arguments in the case, though that fact does not necessarily mean he will not participate in the final ruling.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
Gov. Tate Reeves extended a mask mandate for 15 counties and other orders through Dec. 11.
Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday, under COVID-19 quarantine with his family after a daughter tested positive, extended a mask mandate for 15 counties and other orders through Dec. 11.
The counties under a mask-wearing mandate because of high numbers COVID-19 cases are: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Humphreys, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Marshall, Rankin, and Yalobusha.
“I know that we are all tired and ready to move on,” Reeves said in a statement. “But the virus is still here. It’s still working to infect and kill. We’ve gotten far better at dealing with it, and allowing for life to go on. But we’re not all the way there yet.”
Jones and Neshoba counties had been in his previous mask mandate, set in late October and expiring Wednesday, but were not included in his new list. Rankin County was added to the new mask mandate list.
Reeves on Tuesday announced on social media that the youngest of his three daughters had tested positive for COVID-19. He said his family would all be tested and isolating.
Later he tweeted: “Quick update: Elee and our other girls tested negative again. So did I. Since Maddie also had a negative test as recently as yesterday we’re going to monitor closely and be cautious. I’ve heard and felt the outpouring of prayers, and they mean the world to Maddie and all of us!”
Reeves urged Mississippians to social distance and wear masks.
Reeves on Sept. 30 lifted a statewide mask mandate — making Mississippi the first state to rescind such a mandate — that he had issued on Aug. 4, and he relaxed restrictions on social gatherings. Since then, cases have risen.
During the span of the statewide mask mandate, Mississippi cases plummeted, dropping by 54%.
Reeves had been hesitant to issue a statewide mask order in the summer, instead taking a county-by-county approach until state hospitals were becoming overloaded. He has said that a county-by-county approach to mask mandates and other restrictions as cases spike is better because people are more likely to pay attention and heed the orders.
This week, Mississippi’s average number of daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 900 for the first time in three months and has continued to climb.
Color your way through Mississippi with me! Click below to download a coloring sheet of The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The MAX) in Meridian.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) looks to pass as Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett (58) works against offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk (71) during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
It was late Sunday night and on the New Orleans Saints post-game radio show Deuce McAllister was searching for the right word to describe what had happened in the showdown between the Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Tampa.
So McAllister reached into his trove of what he calls his “Mississippi twang” for this description: “The Saints thonked ’em.”
Rick Cleveland
You ask me, that’s some genuine rural Scott County onomatopoeia right there and it fits. The Saints’ 38-3 thrashing over the previously 6-2 Bucs was a “thonking” of the first order. The victory moves the 6-2 Saints a half game ahead of Tampa Bay in the NFC South. Two of the three Bucs defeats have been to the Saints, New Orleans now would hold the playoffs tiebreaker if the two teams wind up tied in the standings. And since the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers, the other two NFC South members are sitting at 3-6, the Saints are sitting pretty.
Understand, the Saints were 4.5-point underdogs, were playing on the road and were facing Tom Brady, the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history. Brady? The Saints thonked him too, sacking him three times and swarming him many others. The Saints picked him off three times and made him look, perhaps for the first time, like the 43-year-old he is. It was the worst defeat of Brady’s Hall of Fame career.
Just goes to show that even the winning-est quarterback in league history is lost without pass protection and a running game. The Bucs had neither. Here, perhaps, is the stat of this football season: The Bucs ran the ball five times for eight yards. That’s right: five rushes in four quarters.
Deuce McAllister
Said McAllister, nearly as good as an analyst as he was as an All Pro running back: “Five runs the entire game? That’s crazy. If I were the offensive coordinator, I couldn’t face my running back after a game like that.”
McAllister, who often ran the ball five times per possession as one of the Saints all-time greats, makes a really good point. When the Saints figured out the Bucs couldn’t – or wouldn’t – run it, the defensive line began racing one another to get to Brady.
But perhaps the biggest takeaway from Sunday night’s game was this: The Saints, for the first time all season, looked like a Super Bowl contender. They looked like a team that could win it all. This was their fifth straight victory but the first of those five that was by more than six points. The three others were all by three points and two of those were in overtime.
Before, the Saints were scraping by, doing just enough to win. This time, they put it all together: offense, defense and special teams.
Drew Brees, with all his receivers back from injuries and COVID, looked like the old Drew Brees and took back the NFL career lead for touchdown passes from Brady. (Brees now has 564, Brady 561.) That’s 1,125 combined touchdown passes. Let’s pause for a moment and let those numbers sink in.
Demario Davis, the Saints’ ball-hawking linebacker from Brandon, obviously did.
“You’re talking about two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game going head to head,” Davis said, post-game. “I just don’t want to move past this moment, because this is history. The fact that all of us get to be part of this, it’s just an amazing experience.”
Brady would probably have another description.
Rogelio V. Solis / Associated Press
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees’ right shoulder was often iced down at hot, humid Millsaps in 2006.
Brees did have a running game to keep the Bucs defense honest, and when the Saints threw it, he often had time to comb his thinning hair before picking out an open receiver. He looked just about as sharp as he has since he resurrected his career back at Millsaps College 14 years ago. Amazingly, he spread his 29 pass completions around to a dozen different receivers.
The Saints called on punter Thomas Morstead only once. So complete was this Saints victory, Morstead responded with a booming, sky-high 51-yarder.
Yes, it was a thonking. And Bruce Arians, the Bucs venerable head coach whose first full-time job was at Mississippi State way back in 1978, had a description that was every bit as fitting as McAllister’s.
Said Arians: “It was shocking… they kicked our ass in every phase.”
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America
Diamond Wooten, graduate student Jackson State University, right, gets help from Marian Talley with her first individual insurance policy at Farish Street Baptist Church Friday, December 7, 2018.
‘It could be Holy Hell for some people’: Fate of the Affordable Care Act, health care for Mississippians in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments against the Affordable Care Act this week. If it is struck down, advocates say it will have long-lasting effects on the state, where as many as 450,000 Mississippians will be left without access to affordable healthcare.
As a community health worker, Christopher Roby devotes his career to helping folks access health care and support services they need. It’s a lot of paperwork, on-the-ground liaisons with clinics, hospitals and insurers, and time spent earning trust of clients who’ve sometimes gone their whole liveswithout health care.
Recently those clients included his parents, who after years of forgoing costly health insurance — and the preventive and primary care that comes with it — enrolled in coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplace. Like many, they were hesitant to hand over personal information necessary to enroll, but as a trusted son, Roby connected the logistical dots to coverage.
The McCrays — Roby’s stepfather Stanley, 48, and mother Angie, 58 —have never had employer-based insurance from their various jobs across the Mississippi Delta. Now in Indianola, Stanley McCray does seasonal farming and Angie McCray is a homemaker, cleaning houses for a living — private health insurance was too unaffordable for the couple and they don’t qualify for state-sponsored Medicaid or federal Medicare.
Like many public health practitioners, Roby is watching from the sidelines as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments over the fate of the ACA. Though nothing would change on the ground for some time, the fate of the law has some advocates nervous about the long-standing implications of its removal, which would leave hundreds of thousands of Mississippians uninsured.
The high court this week will hear arguments forCalifornia v. Texas brought by 20 Republican governors and attorneys general, including Mississippi’s former Gov. Phil Bryant. Collectively, Texas challenged the constitutionality of the ACA, which provides avenues and tax credits to buy health insurance and broad patient protections for affordability and access. If it is struck down, nearly all Mississippians will be touched in one way or another.
If the law were to be overturned, more than just Roby’s parents’ access to health care is at stake — the wide-reaching health law touches nearly every American, clinic and medical reimbursement in some way — but they’re foreground in his mind.
Three years ago, Roby convinced them to try enrolling in the federal marketplace, where their income might qualify for premium tax credits to go toward their monthly insurance payments. It did, and they’ve been enrolled ever since. Once they started seeking regular care, both were diagnosed with pre-existing hypertension that puts them high-risk for COVID-19 and other health complications. But since getting access to regular treatment and meds, they’ve managed their blood pressure and improved their health.
“My biggest concern is they won’t be able to continue to be covered for things that might emerge as they age. We have to worry about cancer, deteriorating bones, limited mobility,” he said, adding he’s worried that their improved health with better access to preventive care and treatment will reverse course.
But Roby and his parents are hopeful. For the first time in nearly two decades, last week the McCrays voted and said preserving affordable health care guided their choices on the ballot.
More than just a way for low- to moderate-income families — anywhere from about $26,000 to $105,000 annual incomes for families of four — to buy health insurance, the law comprises wide-ranging ramifications for insurers, hospitals and patients.
Currently, 600,000 Missisisippians are protected from being charged more or denied insurance based on previous medical diagnoses, such as heart conditions, cancers and now, COVID-19.
In 2019, nearly 250,000 Mississippians, or about 10% of the state, were eligible for tax credits to help cover insurance premiums through the federal marketplace. With record unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic — about 130,000 extra unemployed people as of July — the number of families who will qualify is growing. Projections show the state’s uninsured population ballooning to nearly 450,000 if the ACA is overturned.
All Mississippians are also protected through “essential health benefits” that insurers must cover, such as emergency treatment, preventive services like vaccinations and family planning, and wellness care such as annual cancer screenings.
All of these gains for Mississippians weigh heavily on Maria Morris, a program consultant at the Community Health Center Association of Mississippi.
For 15 years, she’s coordinated public health partnerships across the state to increase Mississippians’ access to affordable health care. For the last decade, she’s focused on helping community health centers prepare for open enrollment on the ACA insurance marketplace.
Though the fate of the law looms in the background of her training calls this year as open enrollment kicks off, she says she can’t let the potential losses from an overturned ACA distract her and encourages other enrollment counselors to do the same. The necessary switch to virtual training and enrollment this year is enough pressure alone.
When training other health centers to enroll people in health insurance, her message is clear: correct misinformation you hear and stay focused on getting them the access to health care they need.
“We (counselors) need to get people enrolled,” Morris said. “We need to make sure, especially in light of COVID, that we reach as many people as we can to get them enrolled.”
In 2019 a lower federal court ruled the “individual mandate,” which required people to have health insurance or pay a fine in order to bulk up the country’s pool of insured, unconstitutional. Two years prior, Congress set the penalty fine to $0, effectively negating the tax and paving the way for the Texas lawsuit.
Opponents of the law say the now-unconstitutional mandate is central to the ACA and without it, the whole law must fall. Health care advocates say while the mandate glued the ACA together by aiming to broadly increase coverage — especially for young, healthy people and those who have never had insurance before — it’s disclusion shouldn’t doom the law’s other unrelated protections.
The omnibus ACA created the Healthcare Marketplace, or federal health exchange, which allows consumers to compare and shop for insurance in a single policy-guaranteed web portal. Last year alone, 98,000 Mississippians signed up for health insurance through the marketplace. Of those final enrollees, 98% percent qualified for tax subsidies to help pay for monthly premiums, another key feature of the ACA. This is where counselor Morris and others come in — helping folks meet eligibility requirements and enrolling in the insurance.
The health centers she works with train staff to identify un- and under-insured patients, and get them connected with counselors who can help them enroll in insurance plans. Insurance policies not only help the patients with specialty costs and meds, but also benefit the clinics, by increasing their reimbursements.
Most of the centers work on sliding scale fees and provide primary and preventive care to people who otherwise don’t have a medical home. Enrollment assistance has long been a key part of the ACA, and will continue to be until patients stop needing the help or the access is pulled out from under them, Morris says.
She and other health advocates worry about the backslide in individuals’ health gains who have become healthier through access to preventive and wellness care, but risk losing those gains if their health insurance goes away.
“…(New insurance consumers) see the benefit out there of having access to the hospital and getting your prescription medication. And then too, people have aged in such a way that they’ve been able to improve their health standards. And then now, they (potentially) can’t get access to it? It would be totally devastating,” Morris said. “And then you’re talking about stress and depression and anxiety on top of COVID. I would hate to have to live through a time like that. It would be totally catastrophic.”
Despite slashed budgets under the Trump Administration for enrollment assistance, counselors like Morris have steadily increased ACA marketplace enrollment every year since 2017, when enrollment took a hit across the U.S. Policy experts hypothesize the dive in enrollment was due to market instability fostered by President Donald Trump’s “repeal and replace” rhetoric that confused many who, if they ended up with navigators’ help, asked, “We still have Obamacare?”
But despite the enrollment dip then, Mississippians are still actively using the marketplace to access health insurance. Enrollment has increased by nearly 20% and is on track to meet or surpass it’s peak 2016 enrollment of 109,000. In 2018, Mississippi was one of only five states to see enrollment gains.
In other words, the marketplace is a popular provision of the ACA in Mississippi. But it’s not the only benefit the state has seen.
Since 2014, an average of 91,000 Mississippians a year have gained health insurance, putting a dent in the state’s high uninsurance rate, and with it, reimbursing clinics and hospitals for previously uncompensated care.
But far more — about a third of the state’s population — were protected from losing health insurance based on their medical histories. Under the ACA’s protections, insurers have to cover the 600,000 Mississippians with pre-existing conditions.
The marketplace in Mississippi saw a rocky start and suffered from limited competition over the years, with insurers dropping out over time. But for the first time since 2017, Mississippi’s marketplace will see two insurers, Ambetter and Molina. For average plans, costs are down 6%.
Still, healthcare costs continue to rise in the U.S. — though slower than previous decades — particularly for employer-based plans. The ACA purposefully avoided interfering with employer-based health insurance, other than requiring employers with 50 or more workers to offer it and ensuring certain patient protections.
About 40% of Mississippians get their healthcare this way — fewer than almost any other state. As COVID-19 caused record numbers of workers to lose jobs and health insurance, more will qualify for insurance and tax credits under the ACA this year, which tells experts it’s a dangerous time to pull the lifeline.
Enrollment counselor Morris is especially worried about new insurance consumers — a major enrollment target of the ACA — who have bought health insurance for the first time in their lives over recent years. Uninsurance rates have plummeted in Mississippi since the ACA passed, especially for people of color. Black Mississippians’ uninsured rate dropped by 35% since 2008, compared to a 27% drop for the state.
Those gains could all disappear with the fate of the wide-reaching health law in the balance, though advocates reiterate that nothing would likely change within the year and encourage people to seek enrollment.
Mississippi has one of the nation’s highest rates of pre-existing conditions — such as high blood pressure, heart conditions and now, COVID-19 — netting more built-in protections under the ACA here.
The COVID-19 pandemic not only puts individuals’ healthcare and insurance under increased use, but it at the same time has gutted hospitals and clinics operating revenues. Public health advocates tend to favor increasing access to care and insurance, but say now more than ever overturning the ACA could upend years of progress expanding insurance rolls, and with that, funding safety-net trauma hospitals, like Jackson’s University of Mississippi Medical Center.
“If (ACA) goes away with nothing to replace it, it could be totally devastating because you’re talking about the elimination of the pre-existing conditions (protections). And so that puts it back into place. We talked about expanding coverage up to the age of 26, that goes away,” Morris, the enrollment counselor, said.
She recalls helping a man in his late fifties enroll for the first time and worries what will happen if he loses the coverage.
“It’s his first time ever getting health insurance in his life, and to go back to not having coverage because he can’t afford it? Those are just a small number of things that could cause devastation and tragedy to people that … need health insurance now more than ever,” Morris said. “It could be just like Holy Hell for some people. I mean, because you’re talking about giving somebody access to something that they needed all this time and then you’re coming back and taking it … that’s where the stress and the devastation and hopelessness come in.”
Open enrollment on the federal marketplace runs through Dec. 15, 2020 for 2021 coverage. Visit healthcare.gov for more information, or get help from certified community counselors and navigators.
Hear from voters across Mississippi, Mississippi Today’s rapid response team of correspondents and senior political reporters Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender. Hosted by contributing producer Tom Wright.
