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

I can't speak for private courses in Mass., but the public courses I frequent, which are owned by towns and operated on management contracts, have interpreted the nonessential business closings to include them.

 

You can start playing the games before fans come back into the stadiums.

But consider, as an example, Adam Schefter's "carnage in the streets" freakout moment over the NFL Draft going on as planned. You can conduct the NFL Draft safely. Technology actually allows that to happen. It's better for the sport, logistically, if it does happen on schedule. And yet, no NFL Draft because it'd be day 50whatever of the coronavirus?

We've reached a point, quickly, where 100 college football players practicing on an empty campus - quarantined in dorms, if need be, between practices would be oh-my-god sacrilegious because there aren't 20,000 other students on campus taking in-person classes. I went to a Wal-Mart two days ago that had every bit of that many people in it, I assure you.

The point is, what would keep us from sports, for a long time, wouldn't necessarily be the ongoing spread of the virus but the perception of "too great of risk" to even thinking about something other than the virus. Schefter's beef has nothing to do with the literal safety of the NFL Draft, but the moral statement it'd send to do something the NFL had planned on doing - and can do safely - while people are dying. That kind of perception can drag on and on, in perpetuity, for as long as we agree there's a concern.

And, honestly, it's better to start to have the conversation about how we do this than scold everyone for two months until everybody gets fed up waiting for public health officials to say our threat level is 0.

 

Michigan State not planning on events on campus until at least July.

MSU moves first summer session courses online, suspends some summer programs

 

The media is being dutiful in reporting what public health officials say. I think it's fair to say public health experts control the conversation - and, for now, should - and university presidents will be in lockstep with that. (So, generally speaking, will the media.)

I don't think editors (print, Web, whatever) are giddy over the absence or sports or advertising. Not at all. But if there were ever a public service moment, it's this one and, damn straight journalists get off on that. They should - they're made for this moment. It's going to crush a lot of newspapers and Web sites financially - and that's heartbreaking - but the rush of this moment, of being vital and important and generally trusted again - that does feel good. So does seeing scientific expertise being able to bring together a nation...however oddly it's being brought together...vs. the usual shim-shammery running the show. Not having sports for awhile is actually kind of refreshing, in a sense. Look at all the distractions we've lost. We can zero in on literal life and death, all day. What could matter more? (I'm not being facetious.)

I could write about this stuff all day. It's very interesting. Science has to be in charge right now. There comes a point when it would be unwise for it to be so, and also a point when we recognize sports are not merely some lame distraction to the really important things of life, such as meditating on our own mortality every day.

 

Completely agree.

It was past time for a huge sports culture / sports industrial complex reset. And this is almost the only way imaginable we'd ever get it.

 

That was kinda my point in all of this. It’s beyond ridiculous out how much is devoted to what really is meaningless entertainment.

 

You are correct the NFL draft can be conducted in safety. The NFL certainly has the money for the technology to conduct it remotely. Hell, once upon a time it was Pete Rozelle at a blackboard and a bunch of guys on the telephone. Worked fine. It will be conducted. Schefter was just freaking out about the virus. That's something almost all of us do once a day, I'd wager. But live action is a long way from the draft. No Zoom for zone blitzes.

 

Meaningless until it becomes hazardous.

 

We've certainly lost sight of what's important in and around sports. Mostly because of money.

But sports - not only the games, but the telling of the story of those games - are an important part of our humanity. And have been for thousands of years.

 

In my very southeastern small city, the mayor closed public courses 10 days or 2 weeks ago. Surprised me, as I would think you could take appropriate precautions to reduce the chance of transmission to almost zero, and having things to do would help maintain public support for a longer shutdown. I believe some of the private courses here are still open, though.