Things are moving quickly across the US and around the world to try and stem the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Wednesday, we learned Tom Hanks and his wife had tested positive for it while in Australia, putting a shock into a lot of people as Hanks was the biggest name to contract it thus far.
Later in the day, the scare came home to roost in the sports world, with Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert who tested positive for the coronavirus. The test result was known just prior to the Jazz’s timpoff against the Oklahoma City Thunder, prompting the game to be postponed.
The NBA immediately took action, suspending the season until further notice.
NBA To Suspend Season Following Tonight's Games pic.twitter.com/2PTx2fkLlW
— NBA (@NBA) March 12, 2020
Sporting events across the globe are either being cancelled, postponed, or played behind closed doors due to the virus.
The NFL is in its offseason, but there are still some events that could be affected.
Obviously, we are less than a week from the start of the free agent negotiating period. Players and their agents will be traveling across the country, perhaps several times, to visit teams either for workouts or to sign contracts. Once they do, there are press conferences that typically happen for some of them. Could that process be affected? Very likely in some regard.
The next big gathering for the NFL is the owners meetings on March 29. Then offseason workouts begin in early April, which is supposed to be when each NFL team reconvenes for the first time in the offseason.
But the biggest offseason event for the NFL comes at the end of April. It’s the draft. And this year it’s set to be bigger than ever, on the strip in Las Vegas.
Could we be looking at a draft like the old days? Like dimly lit rooms where only NFL people are in attendance? With no crowd, no players taking the stage to shake the commissioner’s hand and pose for pictures?
Thus far none of the above NFL events have been cancelled, but that could be where we’re headed. And if the cancellations we’ve seen thus far in the NBA, the NCAA, and other world sporting events doesn’t get a handle on the pandemic, some NFL events will be next to go and the draft festivities in Las Vegas would be in serious danger of not going down as currently planned.
Keep an eye out for those dominoes.