Why won’t sports teams help fight pandemic?
Helping Haiti? Check. School supplies for kids? Check. But why won’t sports teams help fight this pandemic?
In a few minutes of commendable if self-obsessed public relations each game, sports teams across America wrap themselves in the flag, salute the military or first responders and stress their stewardship to the larger community.
So why aren’t our sports teams joining exhausted first responders in fighting the greatest health crisis of our time?
Why not use their abundant ancillary and emotional support for medical staff that need help managing this pandemic?
“We are fighting a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Lotta Siegel, the nursing director of critical care at Memorial West, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel this week in a statement supported by medical evidence.
If it’s illiteracy, players line up to read books for the cameras. If it’s a disaster, teams send supplies and helping hands.
But have you listened to our sports teams’ defining silence over COVID-19? Have you watched teams refuse to address general topics on the virus, much less make eye contact with the community over supporting vaccinations?
Weeks ago, the executive of a South Florida sports team was asked about this failure to respond and labeled it a public-relations crisis more than a health crisis.
“It won’t look right for us to jump into this like we do for other issues,’’ the executive said.
Why?
“We’re trying to figure it all out,’’ the executive said.
More than 600,000 people have died in America from the virus, according to the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention. The deaths of people in their 30s and ages 18 to 29 more than tripled in July and August. The death count was 726 in Florida over two weeks ending Monday.
If kids need back-to-school supplies, our teams are thankfully there.
So where’s a quarterback or catcher wearing masks to make it cool for kids to wear masks in schools? Where’s a player on TV taking a shot on goal — and then a shot in an arm?
In a sports world where public-service announcements are a contractual requirement between teams and players, there are no PSAS about the pandemic. At a time where serving the community is touted as some broader mission statement for teams, there are no meet-andgreet sessions with players or officials at vaccination sites.
Don’t misread that. Good work is done by teams. But this is considered such
a hot button this local team executive only spoke briefly and with the understanding the team and staff position wouldn't be identified.
“Not everyone's in agreement on so much about [fighting the pandemic],'' the executive said. “And if you don't have agreement inside the team with the players …”
Oh, like Black Lives Matter? Did every player agree on the manner to address that issue?
“It's different,'' he said.
Everything’s different. Nothing is equal. But Pfizer's vaccine was approved Monday by the Food and Drug Administration. The two sides of our split society, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, each told people to get vaccinated.
Biden said companies should demand employees be vaccinated. The NFL already does that. The Miami Heat also has announced office employees must be vaccinated. It's something that says what they really think. So does opening venues for testing and vaccinations.
But it's one thing to know the team accountant is vaccinated. It's another for a player to cite evidence and show up for two hours at a vaccination site like is done for other publicservice issues.
Instead, the only way teams sound involved with COVID-19 is through the continuous list of people missing work. Some are fully vaccinated, like Marlins manager Don Mattingly, who missed 12 games recently. The medical implications aren't much in cases like that, evidence says.
Some players seemingly aren't vaccinated, too. That's what teams are dealing with in managing seasons. It's what larger communities are in managing lives, too.
A couple NFL coaches like Minnesota's Mike Zimmer and Washington's Ron Rivera have come out strongly for players taking vaccines. It's in the context of a coach wanting the season to continue unimpeded. But, again, it's something.
As it is, teams are saying public relations is more important than people. They'll thank first responders when it's convenient to wrap everyone in a flag.
Wrap themselves with the medical world in solving the pandemic? They'll pass.