The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the lie that professional sports leagues put the health and safety of their players before the teams’ bottom line.
It’s the height of irresponsibility for MLB, NBA, WNBA, NHL, NFL, MLS and NWSL teams to resume play while COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise. And that goes double for California colleges and high school programs that are moving forward with plans to play games this fall.
The competition endangers the players; accelerates the general spread of the virus; risks the players exposing parents, grandparents and other vulnerable friends and family; and sends the wrong message to fans around the world that sports competition can be safely resumed. It can’t. Not yet.
Yet Major League Baseball officials announced Tuesday that teams will start play July 23 or 24. National Basketball Association teams have approved a plan to restart the season at Disney World with 22 teams on July 31. The National Women’s Basketball Association has said it will launch the 2020 season in July in Bradenton, Fla. The National Hockey League will begin the Stanley Cup playoffs on July 30 in two hub cities, one of which will be Las Vegas.
The National Football League is planning to kick off its season Sept. 10, presumably with a full slate of games to follow. Major League Soccer plans to resume with a tournament in Orlando, Fla., on July 8. And the National Women’s Soccer League opens its Challenge Cup tournament in Utah this weekend.
The highest risk of being infected is by close contact. Officials of those leagues are kidding themselves if they believe they can create a safe environment for players, coaches, referees, umpires and their families.
The health issues are especially worrisome in Florida, where NBA, WNBA and MLS teams plan to play their games. New cases there have spiked in June to triple the number at the peak in April and five times the number at the start of June.
The notion of professional football and baseball teams traveling across their regions or traversing the country is similarly disturbing. The nation is witnessing an upsurge in daily cases, approaching the records seen in April.
The NFL Network reported last week that a San Francisco 49ers player who was working out with teammates in Nashville tested positive for the coronavirus. Multiple players on the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys reportedly have also contracted the virus, including star running back Ezekiel Elliott. And that’s presumably during non-contact drills.
Some players, including women’s soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe, have wisely opted out of playing games during this weekend’s tournament. Five WNBA players also have said they plan to sit out the entire season.
League officials shouldn’t put the players in a position where they must choose between their health and their financial interests. The responsible course of action is to shut down all games until scientists have developed a vaccine or the threat of infection is greatly reduced. We’re not there yet in the U.S.
This editorial first appeared in The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) on Friday. This commentary should be considered another point of view and not necessarily the opinion or editorial policy of The Dominion Post.
Morgantown Area News
'Friday, November 15, 2024'
