Hope fading for quick return
Several obstacles remain before sports should get the green light
Major League Baseball returned in glorious fashion in the wake of 9/11 and played an important role in lifting the spirits of a nation trembling after a terrorist attack on our own shores. For that brief window, baseball felt like the national pastime again.
But COVID-19 is a completely different deal.
Expecting athletes to lead the way back to normalcy this time is neither realistic nor fair to anyone either playing professional sports or watching them on TV.
For example, let’s look at the concept of games played in empty stadiums. The first problem with that: If it’s not safe for fans to sit next to each other in the stands, why is it safe for athletes to sit next to each other in clubhouses, dugouts, flights, bus rides to and from the stadiums?
I suppose the best answer to that is it’s easier to control the environment with far smaller numbers. Constantly sterilize every inch of the clubhouse, bathroom, lounges. Test everybody regularly.
Clubhouse attendants, flight attendants, pilots, bus drivers, umpires, TV cameramen, athletic trainers would all be in the mix. What if one TV remote isn’t sterile, 10 players get the virus from it and that team has to use minor leaguers when the club they’re chasing in the standings is at full strength?
And as for regular testing, that only applies if it’s easily available to the general public. Otherwise, how can it be justified?
MLB players come from 20 different countries. Some players returned home. What travel bans will be in play, and when? Nobody knows.
President Trump held a conference call with the commissioners from the four major sports and several others Saturday, and expressed hope that sports could return in August and that the NFL could play its entire season as scheduled.
It was a hope and nothing more. There was nothing wrong with expressing it — but with a constantly shifting, invisible target, it’s tough to share that optimism.
Trump told the commissioners that he hopes to have fans back watching games in August and September, according to ESPN, but at the ensuing press briefing made it clear he was not setting a deadline.
“I’m not committed to it,” he said. “We’re going to see where we are.”
Two weeks ago, Trump floated
Easter Sunday as a date for the nation to return to normal, but when health care experts advised strongly against that, he didn’t cling to his hope. He listened to them — so look for him to do so again if the experts don’t like the idea of the leagues getting back to business this season.
ESPN reported that NBA commissioner Adam Silver told the president during the conference call that he would love for the NBA to lead the return to competition, but only after public health officials issued an “all-clear.”
Leadership doesn’t always mean being the first back to work. Sometimes it means putting up a stop sign.
What happens if the NBA comes back, goes to great lengths to do so in a sterile environment, even having all the teams stay in the same hotel in Las Vegas and play at the same empty arenas, and a few players test positive? Then it shuts right back down.
Safe: Going ahead with the NFL draft, which also serves as a welcome distraction during stressful times. Not safe: Bringing games back too soon.
At this point, it’s difficult to see a resumption of the NHL, NBA and MLB seasons. Upsets do happen, but those are beginning to shape up as longshots.
Sports figures can still help, as Patriots owner Robert Kraft did in showing that the rules of competition don’t apply to this fight when he earmarked 300,000 of the 1.7 million N95 masks he had flown back on the Patriots’ plane for New York City.
But who does it help if leagues return to work too soon?
Nobody.