Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sounded an alarm on the future of professional sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report that aired on CNN Thursday morning.
To some, this will be like ripping their children away from them.
Not me. It’s a SPORT, not real life.
But I can believe he’ll be kicked off Trump’s team by then!
This is so easy to game out. This will become a completely partisan battle.
Southern teams (i.e., SEC) will play, dammit. NW conferences (PAC-12, WAC) will not. The ACC and B10 will have a complete random mix of some teams playing, some not, based on geography. B12 will start the season, then have to abandon when 25% of each team gets COVID.
IOW, a hot mess that will become smoking-hot political by November…
I am actually in favor of having the football season. Players are by nature healthy and are regularly being medically monitored anyway, so little risk for them. Besides the game is inherently risky, they are well paid as it is so they should not be having to much trouble accepting a little bit more risk, the risk of CTE is way more serious.
Now they should do like the English Premier League or the Bundesliga: play without public. After all most of the money comes from TV anyway.
Fauci Finds It ‘Very Hard’ To See How Football Season Will Kick Off In The Fall
I was always under the impression that the difference between a “game” and a “sport” is that one involves real physical risk. With COVID-19, every gathering involves physical risk. I guess those sessions of Bridge can now be called a “sport”.
With respect to football, while there are aspects of the sport that I truly enjoy, I really, really HATE the fact that our modern gladiators are all collecting brain damage (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, CTE) for our collective entertainment. Maiming each other was bad enough, and I know this because I used to “play” the “game”.
All the above said, I am going to immensely enjoy punting, passing and kicking a lot of politicians this November, most notably the orange fascist, and I’m very confident many readers here feel the same.
I really can’t imagine how football gets played this year, in either the NFL or the NCAA. It’s a full-contact sport with dozens of players on the field throughout the game, not to mention all the regular practices. One infected player will rapidly become dozens of infected players, and at that point the team’s season is effectively cancelled. The leagues can’t proceed when teams start dropping out, and I imagine more than a few will be dropping out before the season can even get started.
The initial reaction may play out that way, but I see this as what is going to break the backs of the stupid positions of the GOP and will cement the blue wave.
The realities of the virus can’t be wished away. What happens when the Alabama teams QB tests positive and has to sit for two weeks, then the o-line? The logistics of playing aren’t going to be possible with teams of 65-100 kids.
Football is when reality sets in for red America
On first Tuesday following the first Monday in November, which for the first time in 50 years will not have Monday Night Football, Americans will go to the polls.
Like Donald Trump and the Republicans, I think this is significant.
Oooh…you don’t think we should do it because people will get sick…?
Ohh…
Cannot be said enough.
Fewer CTE’s in the name of entertainment, no having to hear uninformed squabbling about a racist anthem, and no moronic droning on about meaningless microstatistics. What’s not to like?
I was thinking something similar; it’s basically impossible to run an NBA-style event (compressed-schedule tournament in isolation at Disneyworld) with massive American football teams, and the nature of the sport. You can’t play American football games on back-to-back nights because of the physicality and injuries, especially at that level. Isolating all those team members for several months is also very difficult… and if even one person gets the virus anyway, the whole thing goes to shit and spreads like wildfire.
This will be especially difficult to swallow for some because sports leagues elsewhere in the world are starting to safely play again (I watched a New Zealand rugby match on TV the other day with a full stadium of fans! I was quite jealous). It illustrates the contrast between America’s progress, and that of other nations, in a way that will resonate for some voters who otherwise pay no attention to politics.
Fauci’s parting shot on his way out:
NFL - let the games begin, under the proviso that if any player/coach/staff on a given team is infected, the owner of that team must submit to inoculation with COVID-19.
NCAA - no way; at least some of the players will be attending class, which will expose the general student body, assuming anybody is attending class. And if nobody is attending class, then there should be no sports either.
High School - no way in hell
Well sure, but will the MSM reinforce the idea that it’s the Democrats’ fault? I mean they already crashed the economy, and now they’re after your sportsball!
It would not be just a problem for the team, but as Football players, at least some of them still attend class, it would be a problem for the entire university.
Even with extraordinary precautions, I think it’s unlikely the NFL gets through training camps or the preason without significant enough problems to cause cancellation of the regular season.
So they will kneel during the national anthem from the comfort of home.
Yep. College and HS? Forget it.