McCaffery: NFL makes right call to trust its own medical bosses
In industry and medicine, not always in that order, there forever will be the value of the second opinion. Fortunately, the NFL is embracing the concept.
Determined to run its business during a coronavirus scare, yet forced to make its coaches work under what have been described as “humanly impossible” conditions, the NFL recently nicely stiffarmed a tackler away.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose has advised every president since Ronald Reagan on infectious diseases, chose last week to warn that “football may not happen this year.” His voice was right to be heard. But what the good doctor didn’t see coming, among many things, was that the NFL has one or two medical types of its own on retainer.
“Dr. Fauci has identified the important health and safety issues we and the NFL Players Association, together with our joint medical advisors, are addressing to mitigate the health risk to players, coaches, and other essential personnel,” said Allen Sills, the NFL’s medical advisor, in a statement. “We are developing a comprehensive and rapid-result testing program and rigorous protocols that call for a shared responsibility from everyone inside our football ecosystem. This is based on the collective guidance of public health officials, including the White
House task force, the CDC, infectious disease experts, and other sports leagues.
“Make no mistake, this is no easy task. We will make adjustments as necessary to meet the public health environment as we prepare to play the 2020 season as scheduled with increased protocols and safety measures for all players, personnel, and attendees. We will be flexible and adaptable in this environment to adjust to the virus as needed.”
They’ll do it their way, thank you very much.
That’s how medicine works.
That’s how business works.
Advice is taken, but not blindly followed, for there often may be better advice available.
The NFL realizes that playing through a medical challenge “is no easy task.” But at least it has done what its players have always done so well: Stand its ground, run another play and continue to try to score.
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Get Rob Manfred?
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Already owners of the Sixers and New Jersey Devils, Josh Harris and David Blitzer are reported to be interested in buying into the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Good for them that they have such a stash of cash that they can surround the Sixers’ market with a prosports empire. But for Philadelphia fans, that can turn out in a number of ways.
It’s possible that the owners can flip some of their NFL profits into boosting the Sixers’ bench. Then again, they may try to squeeze money out of the Sixers to help the Mets finance a pitcher.
Even if none of that is what happens, there certainly will be a perception that they are favoring one organization over the other. Sports fans can be that way. No, really.
Harris and Blitzer are savvy enough to juggle four franchises. Who would dispute their business brilliance? But they can no longer be believed if they would declare, “More than anything, we want to bring a championship to Philadelphia.”
No, save that one.
Just save it.
And one more thing: Don’t ever again try to introduce Devils defenseman and longtime Flyers adversary P.K. Subban at a Sixers game and expect Philadelphia fans not to boo out of some all-for-one, one-forall allegiance to your conglomerate.
You heard how that turned out.
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Five Phillies tested positive for a virus, and the alarmists were quick to advise the immediate discontinuation of baseball. Predictable.
Yet not one of the players required hospitalization.
None were symptomatic enough that they weren’t able to report to the Clearwater facility to work. And all were immediately separated from the rest of the team to reduce the risk of the situation spreading.
For the past 30 years, there has barely been a week when a player on one major-sports-league team or another wasn’t given a night or two off with “flu-like symptoms.” The idea was to make sure others in the locker room weren’t infected. It never meant that everyone from the parking-lot attendants to the organists needed to stop earning a living.
In March, fans and employees were willing to stay away from sporting events to help ease a potential overwhelming burden on hospitals. The burden was limited. The curve was flattened.
Baseball must commit to health vigilance. So must anyone entering a ballpark. When was that ever a bad idea, anyway? But the people who depend on sports for their income have done their time. They don’t have to do another hitch.
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Good to know dining al
fresco is OK again. But just so you know, I never got it when it was legal before.
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There was a mile-and-aneighth Grade 1 stakes event for 3-year-olds Saturday. They called it the Belmont Stakes. It was like playing a football game on an arenaleague field and calling it the Rose Bowl.
Here’s to horse racing for continuing to operate when other sports couldn’t figure out how to make it work while people were under house arrest. But the Belmont Stakes is meant to reveal greatness at a mile-and-a-half. Anything shorter and it is something else altogether.
So just call what happened Saturday what it was: The 10th at Belmont.
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Is it my imagination, or did the sports world go nuts the minute the Phillie Phanatic sprouted wings?
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Queen Elizabeth’s hat … I don’t get it.