Will COVID-19 be the needle that finally bursts the sports bubble?

I think it's equally for the sports media to consider. I just don't get the impression many sports opinionmakers - maybe not beat writers, but opinionists - think sports should come back, and will treat even a single hospitalization as evidence of shutting down a league or a sport. The minute you go to a public health expert, they're going to be honest and say shut it all down, because their job is to focus on that one aspect of the pandemic.

 

Because it's their job to focus on one thing? Not because they think, in their educated, experienced and considered opinion, that it's the best public policy?
Are you saying that health experts are dubious about the viability of sports simply because they're telling the libruhl media what they want to hear?
Think about this for a minute. If the situation is dire enough that NFL teams are required to practice social distancing and to wear masks in the locker rooms, how does it suddenly become safe when they get on the practice field and tackle and huddle? I'm not the only one to raise these concerns. Actual NFL coaches, McVay and J. Harbaugh, among others, have expressed this question. Are they part of the libruhl media that is hell-bent on shutting down sports?

 

I think you may be missing the main issue with the virus and team sports. If a team gets an outbreak, and now two have, Phillies and NHL Lightning, the players themselves aren't going to want to play. They may be young and strong, but they have parents, grandparents, wives, children, etc. They don't want to become contagious OR sick.

 

Apparently today is coronavirus positive news dump Friday

 

So, are you saying the athletes testing positive are all non-millionaires? Or are they millionaires who weren't "protected" properly?

Edit: In case you're thinking COVID's not really a bad thing after all, as long as you don't die...

Lingering and painful: the long and unclear road to coronavirus recovery

 

Sigh.

I'm not an anti-science guy. I respect the opinion of public health experts. The point that I'm making is their job is examine a range of public health outcomes on a given situation, not measure the value - financial or cultural - of a thing against those outcomes. I wouldn't expect a public health official to understand every nuance as it relates to, say, telehealth or teleschool being flawed. Nor would I expect them, on the spot, to be able answer a question like: Let's say there is no NFL in the fall. How many players, coaches and owners, presuming normal patterns of behavior like going to grocery stores or weddings or dinners or the gym, would get COVID-19 anyway, and how does that rate compare, say, to the rate if they play the sport?

I mean, think about it: The pro leagues are invested, to a very high degree, in keeping their stars safe and they have the money to test, quarantine and contact trace better than any public government - which has to manage everyone else - would. If, say, the NFL season is cancelled, QB1 isn't getting tested every three days, isn't getting quarantined the minute he shows symptoms, isn't being mandated to wear masks at all times, isn't limiting his contact with outside parties because there isn't any financial incentive for him or the league to do so. The guy just goes home and, what? Bunkers? Of course not. He’s 25. He’s going to go out, eat, drink, party, see family, all of it.

 

So they’re going to, what? Hope they don’t get it over the next 3 years?

Short of a nuclear winter economy, a lot of people are going to get this before a vaccine. Treatments already have and will improve. When you remove any financial incentive to be as safe as possible - which, if you cancel sports for the next cycle, you will have done that - it’s hard to see how athletes, who damn well know they’re healthy, are going to somehow act more safely than they would if they were mandated to act safely.

I mean, maybe it just takes time to acclimate to the new normal. OK, wait a year. For everything. Then we’ll be back to this moment next summer, a positive test will turn into a big story, and then what? Wait another year?

And don’t tell me Trump. Huh-uh. These leagues will do the kind of safety protocols and contact tracing a Biden-led government could only dream of. And they have the money to pay for it.

Now - fans? Yeah, I can see no fans. I think that’s a super spreader event.

 

Pop goes another bubble

 

If the leagues want to play, and there are players willing to play, then they should play. They’ll protect their players as well as possible. They get the best health care. They’re well-paid. If fans don’t attend - which I’m fine with - why not play the games? Any player who doesn’t want to play can forfeit his salary and sit out.

What’s so heinous about that suggestion?