LSU HC Ed Orgeron Tells Mike Pence 'Football Is the Lifeblood of Our Country'

Ed Orgeron really doesn't want to see the 2020 season get canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The LSU head coach told Vice President Mike Pence at an education roundtable Tuesday that he believes football is "the lifeblood" of the United States.

"I don't think we can take this away from these players, take this away from our state and our country," he said, per Steve Gardner of USA Today. "We need football. Football is the lifeblood of our country in my opinion. It gets everything going, it gets the economy going, the economy of Baton Rouge, the economy of the state of Louisiana."

Spiking cases of the coronavirus around the nation have schools, conferences and athletes weighing the risks involved with playing a contact sport during a pandemic.

As one Power Five athletic director told Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports: "Right now, I don't see a path in the current environment to how we play. I'm confident we'll get back to what we all think of as normal, but it may be a year before that happens."