NO FOOTBALL?
Dr. Anthony Fauci does not see how football can be played this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic
The returns of the NBA, WNBA, MLS, and NWSL amid the COVID pandemic are predicated around forming a “bubble” environment for their respective leagues.
The NFL is planning to play its 2020 season, however, with a normal travel schedule and teams using their home stadiums. That may present an issue, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci told CN on Thursday.
He also expressed pessimism for a full season if a second wave of the coronavirus spreads during the fall.
“If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year,” he told CNN.
At least two NFL players, Denver Broncos safety Kareem Jackson and Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, were revealed this week to have tested positive for the virus. Commissioner Roger Goodell in an interview with ESPN on Monday said the league expects players to test positive during the season.
In college football, programs across the country have reported players testing positive. On Thursday, the University of Texas said 13 players had tested positive or were presumed positive for COVID-19. OKLAHOMA: OU football coach Lincoln Riley said in an interview on ESPN's Golic and Wingo show Thursday that multiple of his players have either been exposed or tested positive for coronavirus. “Nobody's immune to this,” Riley said. “We've had a player or two that has been either exposed or has tested positive for this thing just like everybody else has. The difference for us is our players aren't all here together, so they haven't infected or exposed a bunch of players here.” An OU spokesman later confirmed one Sooners football player had tested positive.
“While our facilities have been closed to workouts since last spring and our student-athletes will not return for several more days, we are aware that a member of our football team has tested positive for COVID-19,” the spokesman said.
Riley has been more conservative to return to campus than some of his peers. The NCAA began allowing athletes to return to campuses for voluntary workouts as early as June 1, but the Sooners will not be back until July 1. Several programs have already returned to campus, including Oklahoma State, Alabama and Arkansas. Each school has had multiple players test positive for coronavirus.
OHIO STATE: Ohio State will play Alabama in a home-and-home series in 2027 and 2028.
The Crimson Tide will visit Ohio Stadium on Sept. 18, 2027. Ohio State will go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to play Sept. 9, 2028, in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The series will be the first regular-season games between the powerhouse since they met in the Kickoff Classic on Aug. 27, 1986, at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The teams have never played on each other's campus.
49ERS: The San Francisco 49ers might be without their top wide receiver for the rest of the summer and the start of the regular season. Deebo Samuel suffered a broken foot in Nashville and is scheduled to undergo surgery Thursday, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported. Samuel's recovery from the Jones fracture is expected to sideline him for 12-16 weeks, per Rapoport.