Kudos to county for treating 49ers like everyone else
The 49ers are in exile. Forced out of their home for the foreseeable future.
At a time of year when sheltering with family offers at least some comfort during difficult times, the team’s players, coaches and staff will be pulled away from loved ones and isolated together, possibly for the month of December.
The 49ers will play their next two “home” games at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, Monday night against the Buffalo Bills and the following Sunday against Washington. Two road games, including one against the Cardinals at State Farm, are to follow. Whether the 49ers will be allowed to play their season finale at Levi’s Stadium against Seattle on Jan. 3 remains to be seen, though at this point in the surging pandemic it seems doubtful.
The 49ers’ move is unprecedented. Teams and games have been temporarily relocated, but usually because of a physical problem with a stadium. The 49ers had to play at Stanford
In reality, Santa Clara County should get praise for treating its resident NFL team the same way it treats everyone else. The coronavirus doesn’t play favorites, but society does.
after the Loma Prieta earthquake shook Candlestick Park in 1989. The Saints had to play in San Antonio and Baton Rouge, La., in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But in some ways, there are similarities, especially to Katrina. This is a disaster, a global flood of virus. And though we could have taken steps to stanch the flow, to build levees with careful behavior and strict protocols, the floodwaters keep rising. Occasionally there’s been an ebb, but then we get lazy and the torrent breaks through again.
For eight months we’ve been watching this dangerous tide rise, uncontrollably, with more than 260,000 killed by the coronavirus in the United States.
And with hospitals near capacity, ICU beds filling and hospital workers strained, only the most myopic would say that Santa Clara County is doing the wrong thing by adopting the strictest of protocols. The fact that the county did not make an exception for a football team shows a perspective that is woefully lacking in much of the country.
After Sunday’s game at Los Angeles, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan expressed disappointment that he had learned of the county’s directive through news reports, while on a plane with concerned players and staff. His feelings are understandable, because he’s the point person for everything that happens with the team.
But Santa Clara County told the Associated Press, in response to Shanahan saying he was “extremely disappointed,” that the dramatic surge in hospitalizations required quick action.
“The 49ers are one of thousands of organizations impacted by our most recent actions,” the county statement read. “The County of Santa Clara has been in regular communication with the 49ers both before and after the announcement of the revised mandatory directive. … Our priority is on hospitals and ensuring that individuals can get the care they need.”
These latest developments only add to a tense relationship between the 49ers and their home city and county.
But shouldn’t every county be prioritizing in the same way?
The 49ers are exiled from a county that — according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine — reported 560 new cases on Sunday to Maricopa County, Ariz., which had 1,669 new cases on the same day.
That doesn’t make Santa Clara wrong or Maricopa right, or vice versa. It illustrates the wild fluctuations in the approach to controlling the virus, a reason that there is no control. Hospitalizations are surging in Arizona, but the state has been lax and late on protocols throughout the pandemic — so welcoming the 49ers doesn’t seem to be an issue.
In reality, Santa Clara County should get praise for treating its resident NFL team the same way it treats everyone else. The coronavirus doesn’t play favorites, but society does. The testing and supplies, manpower and dollars being devoted to playing sports in a surging pandemic continues to underscore how out of whack our priorities are.
The NFL has not been operating in a bubble in terms of the coronavirus. But it always operates in a bubble of privilege and selfimportance, so it’s a bit jolting when a team gets treated like a normal business.
None of that diminishes the human aspect of this. Many of the players who have home bases in other parts of the country already are separated from their family because of the pandemic. But those who live locally, as well as the coaches and whatever staff will be included in the relocated group, will be leaving their spouses, partners and children behind. Given the mandatory 14day quarantine upon reentering Santa Clara County, they may not be able to be reunited fully until January.
That’s a burden that no amount of privilege or salary can erase. Niners running back Raheem Mostert, speaking with reporters via Zoom after Sunday’s game, broke down when speaking about his family. His wife and two sons, one a newborn, are in Ohio.
“Not having my little family … I miss them so much,” Mostert said, apologizing for his emotions.
“It’s a fight out here every day.”
And every day is a new challenge.