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

I think like most people, I've been wondering if the lack of crowds might doom sports - but when seeing the numbers of athletes who already tested positive as various entities try to get rolling - I'm almost wondering if a diagnosis could end a career. Heart and lung damage, embolysims etc. The risk for black males is noticeably higher. Just contracting it could be a career ender.

The emerging long-term complications of Covid-19, explained

 

A large number of athletes have contracted the virus since March. Starting with Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, etc.

Have any of them been career enders?

 

We’re also presuming people can’t get this any other way. They can. They will.

And hell yes it’s possible some athlete will get this and get really sick and/or die. And I just don’t know what to do with that anecdotal information. I’m not sure there’s anything for me to do it. If the athletes want to play, let them play.

What it feels like as the media is putting its thumb on the scale against playing for moral reasons. It feels like the media is for and against a lot of things for moral reasons. The media is full on in the morality business, and when it does that, it forfeits the power it has.

 

Thinking that human lives are more important than a ball game.

Imagine that. Stupid liberals.

 

Tennis, tennis and more tennis.

Red was quoting Andy when he said that! (He only added the "That's goddamn right.")

 

Every contact sport?

Turn your TV on around 3 p.m.

 

They were all quoting Bob Dylan.

 

How can we know when the games haven’t resumed?

 

That is a very good point. They may be dead!

 

So you’re willing to risk their lives and longtime health of all those athletes, coaches, athletic trainers and other support staff members, staff members of athletic facilities, media members covering the events, other students and nonathletic employees of universities, and countless others just so you can have your precious ballgames?

I regret to inform you and @Alma that I am not willing to play Russian roulette with human lives. It’s only a fucking ballgame. It’s not necessary, unless you’re a spoiled child. You want somebody to put themselves at risk just so you can be entertained? Risk yourself first.

If you find my unwillingness to murder people for sport to be problematic or “moralizing” then may God have mercy upon your soul.

 

This mindset looks fine for now in the NBA, where the bubble concept will be in play.
In the case of college sports, this presumes that athletes are the only people on a campus who are placed at risk by games and practices. What if we learn -- and I agree that we don't know yet -- that football players or soccer players spread the virus to faculty and staff, who are not all as young as the student-athletes?

 

This is a very good point. “Yes” to the pros. “No” to NCAA.