Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Weighing the risks of playing the game
Is Florida really the safest place to restart sports?
Why here?
Why now?
Why (and I hate to ask this) at all?
There’s a fine line between being an alarmist in these odd times and asking fundamental questions as new data arrives. So look at the two converging lines on the graph as Florida is about to be the sports capital of America.
Name by name, sport by sport, drop by drop, those players sidelined by positive COVID-19 tests come out. The Heat’s Derek Jones Jr. did on Thursday. Novak Djokovic after a simple tennis exhibition.
Brooks Koepka pulled out of this week’s PGA tournament after his caddie tested positive. Several Toronto Blue Jays and staff reportedly were positive in Dunedin. Bottom-line: If you have sports, coronavirus is in the lineup.
That’s one line on the graph.
Here’s the other line: Day by day, county by county, the numbers in Florida keep rising. A record 5,508 additional cases were reported Wednesday, according to the Florida Department of Health. That thumped the previous record of 4,049 on Saturday.
These two thoughts — returning sports and rising tests –— are about to collide. Major League
Soccer plans a one-month tournament starting July 8 at Walt Disney World in Orlando. The WNBA plans to bring teams to the IMG Academy in Bradenton in July for a truncated 22-game season.
The NBA plans to open its season July 30 at Disney World with non-stop, made-for-TV games. The regular season would end with eight games played before Aug. 14 with a playoff format to follow.
It all sounds fun until it might not be. This is about money more than safety. That’s not to say safety isn’t a concern. There will be no fans, protocols in place and, as much as can be done, health considerations at the forefront — right behind the dollars.
Every team has practiced safety measures as players came back to practice in recent weeks. But look at just in Florida. The Blue Jays closed their facility in Dunedin last Friday after “several” players and staff reportedly tested positive. The Tampa Bay Lightning closed their facility last week after players tested positive. The Phillies had 12 members of their organization (seven players) test positive in Clearwater. Inter Miami CF had a positive test last week in South Florida. Football players at many of the state universities have tested positive.
None of these positive tests have resulted in hospitalization, that we know of. Maybe this is the new normal? Maybe it’s indicative of risk for everyone around them, too.
So can we ask this rationally in this climate: Is Florida the best place for sports leagues to re-start?
Florida has 109,014 confirmed cases and 3,238 deaths as of Wednesday, with numbers significantly of late, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Montana has 766 total COVID cases and 21 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Are any gyms open in Helena? Any fields available in Billings? If Disney wants involvement, think of the movie plot for “Mystery, Montana,” where big stars befriend a small town.
Before this past week’s spike of cases, the leagues starting in Florida made sense. They’d negotiated it through the players union, too. The NBA, for instance, will keep players and team personnel in a “bubble” for the duration of the season.
They will have lists of safety protocol to follow. Players can’t lick hands on the court. Ping-pong games to unwind can only be singles, not doubles. Players also reportedly will wear bracelets or “smart” rings capable of measuring COVID-19 symptoms.
Still, risk is part of this new world, and NBA Players Association’s Michele Roberts told the Associated Press that, “having lived and breathed and suffered through the hours and hours of understanding the virus, and listening to our experts, and comparing different alternative protocols, I can’t even think of anything else we could do short of hermetically seal the players that would keep them safe.”
(Here’s one thing that might help: Have athletes and coaches tell fans to wear masks in public if they want to attend games anytime soon. Health officials aren’t reaching everyone. How about NBA starts putting out an ad to wear masks? Alabama coach Nick Saban and Clemson coach Dabo Sweeney say it’s one subject where they’re on the same team?)
The risk concerns in Florida are mounting just as these seasons come into view. Nearly 30 percent of Florida’s cases (31,680) have come in the past 10 days. Does anyone think the next 10 will be different?
This isn’t to play a health official in a column. It’s to wonder what health officials make of all this. It’s to ask if leagues can keep hundreds of people safe enough. Positive tests will happen. That’s not a fivealarm calamity in and by itself we know by now.
But risk assessment is part of walking out the front door these days. As much as we want games to go on, shouldn’t the leagues assess if Florida is the safest place for them?
Shouldn’t the mayor of Missoula, Montana, be making this pitch, too?