Sports world takes stock of virus threat
COVID-19 fears: Coming to grips with a new reality that seems to change by the hour
Antoine Roussel is standing the required six feet away in a partitioned area when he’s asked about this new world in which we all live.
“I go to the park and life is normal,” the Vancouver Canucks winger said. “I come home and turn on the TV and it’s crazy. I don’t know what to think.”
Does anybody? Roussel’s wife is pregnant in the age of the coronavirus that brings its own kind of stress. I’m talking to Farhan Lalji and, out of the blue, he asks, “Should I fly to California (on assignment for TSN)?” I’m standing in front of the elevator at Rogers Arena and Jay Beagle walks up, pulls his sweatshirt over his hand, and presses the button. My wife and I are planning a trip to see our grandson in Ottawa in a couple of weeks. Is that safe?
It’s everywhere, this unseen menace, and the world is now coming to grips with a new reality, a reality that seems to change by the hour. Against this backdrop, it seems irrelevant to talk about the virus’s impact on sports. But earlier on Tuesday it’s announced the German and Austrian hockey leagues are shutting down for the season and, the day before, Santa Clara County in northern California announces it’s banning all mass gatherings until the end of March. This includes three San Jose Sharks games this month and, potentially, two more in April.
“You try not to let if affect you, but at the same time you have to be aware of it,” Canucks captain Bo Horvat said. “You have to take precautions. I mean, it’s scary. You don’t realize the magnitude until you hear the stories going around the world. You have to take a step back and think about your health and your family’s health.”
Horvat is speaking this day from a podium, part of a new set of protocols for interaction with the media that have been adopted by the NHL, NBA, MLB and MLS. The leagues announced the new policy after consultation with “infectious disease and public health experts,” although it’s hard to know how this will protect players, or the media for that matter, from the virus.
But given everything that is happening outside the field of play, the new guidelines seem almost quaint.
If you go to the BBC website, a story was posted on Tuesday that catalogues the international sporting events that have been impacted by the coronavirus.
It’s a staggering list, numbering 44 in the past five days alone that includes the big — Champions League games played behind closed doors, the cancellation of the IIHF women’s hockey championship in Halifax and the Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells — and the small, with attendance for the Gibraltar Open snooker tournament being limited to 100.
The list was created before the German and Austrian leagues cancelled their seasons. As I typed that last paragraph, the Columbus Blue Jackets issued a statement that their home games would be open to ticketed fans despite the recommendations of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to close all indoor sporting events in Ohio to spectators.
“I think anything could happen right now,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “If it does you just deal with it.”
Sounds simple enough, but if we’ve come to know anything over the last two weeks it’s that this situation is anything but simple. It doesn’t take a microbiologist, in fact, to look at everything that’s transpired and conclude this is headed in one direction. That’s not being alarmist. It’s being realistic.
Dr. Jim Bovard, the Canucks’ team physician, is the club’s point man on this file and his approach is as practical and reasonable as the situation allows. His priority is protecting his patients, whether it’s the Canucks or his practice in North Vancouver. Beyond that, he’s a lot like the rest of us.
“We are all spectators in this in the sense the powers that be will ultimately have the authority and we’ll take our direction from them,” Bovard said over the phone.
“It’s going to be out of our hands. What that looks like we’ll see. A month ago, if you would have predicted some of the things that happened you would have said, no, that’s not the case. (Now) the line is shifting.”
But how far will that line shift? When will it shift? And will it shift to a place where the arenas are locked up?
We’re all looking for certainty here, looking for a clear timeline that tells us when everything will return to normal. Bovard is asked if he can provide that timeline.
“The answer is no, not because I’m trying to be obscure,” he said. “It’s because it’s unprecedented.”
That seems to be the one thing you can say about all this, without fear of contradiction.