I want you to try and remember all the way back toward March. I know it seems like impossibly long ago, but do your best.
Back in March, a single NBA player — Rudy Gobert — tested positive for COVID-19, a terrifying new strain of the coronavirus that was gaining a foothold and starting to spread through the United States.
The NBA immediately shut down, suspending its season indefinitely. Other leagues quickly followed suit. It was widely heralded as the smart and necessary thing to do.
Now it’s June. Over 100,000 Americans have died from the virus in the last three months, and positive testing rates aren’t decreasing in this country like they are in other parts of the world. We’re not handling this pandemic well. Americans are refusing to wear masks despite knowing that they can help spread the virus. In many states, the rates of infection are actually increasing despite hopes that warmer weather would slow the spread of infection.
And we’re trying to start sports back up.
Seriously. We’re opening sports leagues back up.
The PGA Tour is back. Several leagues, including NWSL, MLS, and the NBA all have plans to restart in the next few weeks. College football teams have started offseason workouts. MLB is locked in ugly contract negotiations but appear to want to get started ASAP. NHL and NFL are moving their way back as well.
And so far, in this country at least – the results are disastrous.
As my colleague Hemal Jhaveri pointed out, pro and amateur athletes across all of the leagues are testing positive for coronavirus at an alarming rate.
Ezekiel Elliott and several other members of the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans. A 49ers player. Eight members of the Phillies organization. PGA Tour’s Nick Watney. A DC United player. Several members of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Twenty three (!) reported players on Clemson’s football team.
All positive for coronavirus. For all of these minus the PGA Tour, they aren’t even playing games yet.
My question is: At a certain point, are any of these leagues going to shut down? Or will these leagues reflect our country’s sunk-cost approach and just accept that a lot of players are going to get sick, and pray that none of them are in the small, but not zero, percentage of young people who die because of this virus?
Other countries have shown us that sports can come back safely. But other countries have also shown that social distancing, mask wearing, and contact tracing can slow or eradicate the spread of this disease.
We haven’t done any of that in many parts of this country, due to stubbornness or stupidity or patriotism (?), and it means bringing sports back safely is all but impossible. And, terrifyingly, it appears these leagues have made their peace with that.
[lawrence-related id=927942,927400,927295]
[jwplayer yR9A5ywf-q2aasYxh]