Kirk Herbstreit: "I'll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I'll be so surprised if that happens." https://t.co/CORhXXT708
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) March 27, 2020
Right now, the sheer magnitude of uncertainty surrounding professional sports is crippling. For NFL fans, the league year is moving along at a slow crawl but we have no idea what will happen beyond the NFL draft. But there’s a real possibility the COVID-19 pandemic could have a sweeping impact on the NFL and college football seasons.
This is a sentiment ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit echoed on ESPN radio this week. In fact, Herbstreit went so far as to say he would be surprised if there are football seasons this year. And before you think he’s nuts, his logic makes some sense.
Just because from what I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months from a [coronavirus] vaccine. I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it.
The notion of just cutting people loose into large groups because the virus has slowed down does seem shortsighted. But we will just have to see what happens over the next month or two before we get the full impact of it on football.
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