Big Ten’s Kevin Warren Received Death Threats Over COVID-19 Decision

The conference commissioner reveals he was targeted after league paused its football season because of COVID-19.

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said Tuesday he received death threats in the wake of the conference’s initial decision to forgo the 2020 football season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Warren made the revelation in a wide-ranging interview with Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Richard Johnson at the conference’s media day proceedings in Indianapolis. The commissioner said he avoided driving for the most part because the Big Ten offices in suburban Chicago didn’t have a secure parking lot at the time. He reasoned it wouldn’t be difficult for someone with ill intentions to tamper with his car.

“I didn’t drive for two years, I had so many death threats,” Warren told Forde and Johnson. “My wife said, ‘Kevin, your car only has 400 miles on it.’ Yeah, because I didn’t drive it for two years.”

The Big Ten alerted law enforcement agencies to the threats, which included a fan who posted on social media that he was putting out a $5,000 bounty on Warren. Another threat turned over to authorities: a fan said if he had three bullets with the opportunity to shoot Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler and Warren, he would use all three bullets on Warren.

Warren told SI his family and executive assistant also were threatened.

The Big Ten ultimately reversed course and did play a conference-only football schedule beginning in late October 2020. Conference champion Ohio State earned a College Football Playoff berth and reached the national championship game, losing to Alabama.